Bombardier Middle East customers 'feeling the love'

Eric Martel is very clear about the reasons why Bombardier opened its regional support office (RSO) in Dubai just over a year ago.

Bombardier’s president, customer services and specialised and amphibious aircraft, said: “We felt we couldn’t do our customers justice by supporting them from Montreal. We needed to be in their time zone; the Middle East is a key region for us and we are projecting significant growth there.”

He added that since opening the office in December 2010 the physical presence means “customers are feeling the love”.

Recent additions to the Dubai RSO are a liaison pilot and another field service representative, which brings the staff numbers up to five, with Martel more than happy to add more people when they are required.

This RSO is just one of the ways in which Martel is ensuring the company climbs back up the support rankings. He said: “We feel that we are catching up very well already and we are committed to getting back to number one for support – like we were in the 90s. Customers flying business jets are demanding and we have to make sure that we are supporting them in their region.”

Martel admitted that one of the challenges he faces over the short term is finding the right technical capability so that the company can focus on providing support locally, and preferably in a customer’s own language.

One area where the company has seen a need is in spares. It will be adding to its parts inventory in Dubai, although no figure is yet available because Martel said the company is still working on the details.

Presently, parts in stores in the region are valued at around $11 million. He said: “We are going to increase our parts significantly – we will do what we have to do. If we have to triple the parts, then we’ll triple the parts.”

Martel believes that already the parts inventory in the region is a significant contribution as it ensures that the customer is served more rapidly.

Aside from parts, he is keen to ensure the company can move forward with its goal of providing support locally, which is why the plan is for Bombardier to operate a series of support hubs with facilities in Amsterdam and Frankfurt forming the start for the hub to support Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

As such, the company has been awarded certification at the Amsterdam factory service centre from the GCAA. Martel said: “There is a lot of traffic that comes from the Middle East to Europe and now if they are visiting Europe and want factory maintenance on their UAE-registered aircraft, they can have it.”

Currently the company has no plans to open a factory-owned service facility in the region but, as the installed base and fleet traffic grows, then it may be considered. However, Martel says there is no magic number that determines when the company should open its own service facility.

The company’s service network includes nine owned facilities and 51 authorised business aircraft centres and a further five authorised commercial aircraft facilities. In the Middle East it has a Global family simulator at the Emirates-CAE flight training facility in Dubai and will be adding Challenger 604/605 capability at the same location by the end of July 2012.

The newest regional authorisations were for Challenger 604/605 types and were awarded to Jordan’s Arab Wings in April and Turkey’s MNG Jet in July 2011.