GUY NORRIS / VICTORVILLE
Security upgrades, conversions and MRO will provide new facility's mainstays
BAE Systems has received US Federal Aviation Administration certification for its new base at Victorville, Southern California. The firm plans rapid expansion based on maintenance, security modifications and conversions at its Southern California Logistics Airport (SCLA) site, formerly George AFB.
BAE Systems Victorville Flight Systems vice president and general manager Joe Vreeman says: "We will focus on high-tech aircraft types such as the Airbus A320 family, as well as the Boeing 717, Next Generation 737 family, 757/767 and 777. A lot of the US's Airbus aircraft need heavy maintenance, and our BAE heritage means we already have high-tech capability."
The company is following fellow Airbus shareholder EADS into the US maintenance market. Last year EADS set up a joint venture with Northrop Grumman to undertake maintenance on Airbus aircraft at Lake Charles, Louisiana. European maintenance giant SR Technics also opened a large facility in California in 2001, but the company is looking for additional investors in the Palmdale-based US operation after the collapse of parent Swissair.
Vreeman believes the company, the only major BAE maintenance and modification centre outside the UK, will prosper by providing aircraft security-upgrade work. "We are building a strong relationship with Airbus and Boeing to uprate aircraft with permanent cockpit doors, surveillance systems and security devices. Although some airlines are installing their own, most carriers can't do it quickly enough to complete their fleets by the April 2002 deadline," he says.
Having obtained US FAA FAR 145 repair station certification, Victorville is trying to attract maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) work as airlines offload non-core activities. Mid-term, he expects work to split evenly between modifications, such as passenger-to-freight conversions, MRO, and some management of medium- and long-term aircraft storage.
BAE, which leases two ex-Pemco hangars at SCLA, is due to have facilities in place by mid-yearsays Vreeman. With BAE's modification business at nearby Mojave airport, the operation will employ 900 people.
Source: Flight International
