BBA Aviation units Dallas Airmotive and H+S Aviation are pouring millions of dollars into expanding their facilities and capabilities as the companies continue to focus on significantly expanding their presence in the rotorcraft maintenance, repair and overhaul market.
H+S Aviation in early December opened a new facility in Abu Dhabi to handle a series of new authorizations, while Dallas Airmotive plans to open its new test facility and center of excellence at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport late in the third quarter.
These efforts stemmed from a project launched a few years ago that executives internally called “sea change,” said Dallas Airmotive president Doug Meador. The companies gave a thorough evaluation of their operations and direction and made a strategic decision to exit some work, consolidate facilities, build new ones and refocus on growth areas. “We identified rotorcraft as an opportunity for us,” Meador said.
Dallas Airmotive and H+S Aviation already had stakes in the rotorcraft MRO market, he said. But the companies are making a concerted move to expand the portfolio of work to have a reach as expansive as their fixed-wing portfolios, he said.
In the past year, the two businesses picked up new authorizations for several Pratt & Whitney Canada models along with the Rolls-Royce 300. As a result, the companies collectively have capabilities to support more than 20,000 in-service helicopters and roughly two-thirds of the engine models. Last summer, BBA detailed plans to invest $43 million to support these authorizations.
Both Dallas Airmotive and H+S Aviation announced the newest Rolls-Royce designation at last year’s Heli-Expo and began work on their first customer engines last May. That authorization was followed by the P&WC announcement.
H+S Aviation was awarded designated overhaul facility authorization for the PW200, PW210, PT6C and PT6T in the Middle East. The appointments came in addition to H+S Aviation’s authorization for the PT6T that had been in place since June 2009 at its Portsmouth, U.K. headquarters. H+S Aviation built the Abu Dhabi center to accommodate the newest Middle East work. “We have supported customers in the Middle East for decades,” Meador said. The new center, however, “is the first bricks and mortar” presence in the Middle East for the company. The center in late February was in the final stages of approval from the General Civil Aviation Authority of Abu Dhabi.
Dallas Airmotive, meanwhile, received authorization for the PW200 and PW210. Like H+S Aviation, Dallas Airmotive is investing in new facilities to accommodate the additional work, breaking ground last October on a new 200,000-sq-ft facility that will house the rotorcraft center of excellence. That facility will share a 20-acre parcel with a new six-cell test center also under construction at DFW.
During the groundbreaking, Meador called the center “the future of Dallas Airmotive” and said the new facilities were part of an evolution of how the company does business. “We have known for some time that we need to expand our focus and pursue opportunities in different markets,” he said “That’s why our new rotorcraft center of excellence and six-cell test facility are so important.” Three of the test cells are dedicated to turboshaft engines.
Dallas Airmotive is transitioning its M250 work formerly conducted at the Premier Turbines facility in Neosho, Mo., along with the RR300 work, to its shop in Grapevine, Texas while construction continues on the DFW facility. Ultimately, the M250 and RR300 work will be conducted at the center of excellence at DFW.
The facilities, Meador added, help bring the companies closer to the customer base. “A lot of what we’re doing is setting up our business around our customers.” This includes being available in every region where the customers operate. The newest authorizations already are bringing in a steady flow of business, he said. They also position the company for the future, as some of the older-model engines that it has long supported start to phase out.
Meador said the company is not done with expansion, with growth opportunities in areas such as Latin America and opportunities for additional authorizations.
