Bombardier is building a new service center, hiring across its support network and adding Customer Response Team trucks (CRTs) as the manufacturer continues a multi-year effort to grow customer support to accommodate its expanding fleet.
Bombardier is planning a new 300,000-sq-ft service center that will nearly triple its space at Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. To open in 2018, the center will enable the manufacturer to support the entire Bombardier product line.
The Fort Lauderdale base, established in 1995, is a key location for Bombardier, said Jean-Christophe Gallagher, who recently took on the role of v-p and general manager, customer experience. The location supports customers not only within the southeast U.S. but also Latin American and even Canadian operators who prefer the warmer weather in the winter. “It services many different regions,” he said.
The expansion in Fort Lauderdale is part of an ongoing evolution of Bombardier’s service network that is taking place as the fleet has grown to 4,500 business jets worldwide, Gallagher said.
In the U.S., which is home to more than 2,000 of its jets, Bombardier also is providing additional capabilities in Tucson, Ariz. With these capabilities, which involve additional interior modifications work, the location will be equipped to provide a complete array of services.
The support network expansion also has focused on destinations outside the U.S., as the company has become more global over the years. Bombardier added a facility in Singapore a few years ago, is opening a new line-maintenance facility at London Biggin Hill this year and plans to open its first Chinese joint venture in Tianjin in the first half of 2017.
“Our focus over the past five or six years was really about going into places where fleets were expanding,” said Andy Nureddin, v-p of customer support and training, noting that many sales have gone into developing markets such as India, Russia and China. “The past several years were about expanding our presence around the world.” This was important not only from customers based throughout the world, but also to provide services to the traditional customer base in North America that travels to those locations. “We really had to step up our game, getting to places where global businesses go and where our customers go,” Nureddin said.
With its additions, the number of Bombardier-owned facilities is growing to 10 locations. Coupled with authorized service centers, Bombardier’s network now spans 60 facilities. He added that the evolution is expected to continue, saying the number of destinations will change “as the density increases.”
“We’re delivering 150 airplanes a year,” Gallagher added. “We are delivering way more airplanes than there are retirements.” That requires constant evaluation, the Bombardier executives agreed, saying the network “is a journey not a destination.”
They also emphasized that the changes are not limited to the facilities themselves. “Over the years, not only have we grown the services centers we had…we’ve added additional capabilities,” Gallagher said, citing as an example its CRT trucks.
The company recently added two more CRT trucks in the U.S., bringing its fleet in the region to 15. The newest trucks were stationed in Scottsdale, Ariz., and in Southern California. The company has two CRT trucks in Europe. The trucks, Gallagher said, have “been a huge addition to our overall support.” They reach customers at secondary airports and are deployed for both scheduled and unscheduled events.
The company augments this with its CRT aircraft, a Learjet 45, which it dedicated to customer support in 2014. “It is an important part of customer satisfaction,” he said. The aircraft already has flown more than 200 missions, and the team typically has two hours from the word “go” to become airborne. The jet is based in Chicago, near one of Bombardier’s two major parts hubs. A second is in Frankfurt, Germany. These hubs feed a network of satellite depots that continue to grow, based on customer location.
The company rounds out this support with 15 regional support offices. Gallagher said the offices are “a concept that is new in the past couple years.” They house customer account managers, field service specialists and other support personnel. Bombardier’s goal was to have such an office in every time zone to ensure direct support is always available.
Along with these services and facilities, the company is adding people. The support organization now employs more than 2,500 workers. Bombardier is hiring across its network, with plans to grow its service capacity by up to 20 percent. The company said it was looking for both technical and professional roles. But Bombardier is particularly increasing its maintenance technician workforce, saying it will provide type training for mechanic and avionics certification. Gallagher said part of this is the need to staff new sites, but part of this is expanding capacity at existing sites.
In addition to increasing accessibility to services, Bombardier also has focused on maintainability of the fleets. “Span time on maintenance is very important for our customers,” Nureddin said. Over the past several years the company has worked to lengthen the maintenance intervals, to lower direct maintenance costs and “squeeze costs out” of the fleets.
The Learjet 45 originally had 300-hour intervals, but now with the Learjet 45/75 that time has doubled to 600 hours, he said, representing about a year-and-a-half for the average operator flying time. Similarly, the intervals for the Challenger 300 and 605 were 400 hours. That has evolved to 600 hours for the Challenger 350 and 650, while the Global 5000 and 6000 intervals have lengthened to 750 from 500 hours, Nureddin said. “On the [Global] 7000, we’re going to outdo that as well.”
The intervals have become increasingly important, as utilization has increased, he added. Customers are more focused on the intervals, and they have become a sales tool. “It’s become key,” he said.
Other changes ahead include a revamp of the customer information portal to improve its use as a “working tool.” The redesign, to roll out at the end of the year, will include easing functions such as online ordering, any process involving an aircraft-on-ground event and document searches. The changes also are designed to make the portal more accessible across multiple platforms, including tablets or other mobile devices. Nureddin stressed this was important to keep up with how industry now does business. “Not everyone travels with their laptop in their back pocket. Today’s director of maintenance is not sitting in a back office,” he said. “The expectations of industry are such that everything is becoming automated, simpler and quicker.”
