Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
With its first two stretched BBJ2s heading for completion centres, Boeing admits it is "not out of the woods yet" with delays in outfitting its 737-based business jet.
So far, 28 BBJs have entered service, while a further 25 are undergoing completion and aircraft are arriving from Boeing at a rate of 18 a year. Five of the seven companies responsible for completing aircraft "are either performing to plan or close to it", says Dayton Robinson, Boeing Business Jets' completion centre oversight manager.
Associated Air Center, Jet Aviation Basle, Lufthansa Technik and Ozark Aircraft Services are all "operating well", says Robinson. Dallas, Texas-based Associated has completed three BBJs and has two more on site. Switzerland's Jet Aviation and Hamburg, Germany-based Lufthansa Technik have each completed four and are working on two more.
Rogers, Kansas-based Ozark has recovered from problems with its first BBJ completion, Robinson says, and has four more aircraft on site. A fifth centre, Seattle-based Greenpoint, also had major problems with its first aircraft and has decided to limit itself to less complex completions. The company has completed two airliner-style corporate shuttle BBJs for Ford and one for the USAir Force. A fourth aircraft is on site.
Two completion centres "continue to struggle", says Robinson, Santa Barbara, California-based Jet Center and Raytheon Aircraft Services in Waco, Texas. Jet Center has completed three BBJs and has two more in work, while Raytheon has completed 10, but has another 12 on site. "The two problem centres are not taking new aircraft in," he says.
While Raytheon is "improving", according to Robinson, its contract to complete BBJs for the NetJets fractional ownership programme has been reduced from nine aircraft to five and the work transferred to Lufthansa Technik. "The quality seems good," he says of the BBJs so far completed by Raytheon.
Robinson says several factors have caused the delays: inadequate programme management; saturation of the supplier base supporting the centres; and the US Federal Aviation Administration's decision to require more stringent supplemental type certification of completions, previously approved as minor modifications.
Source: Flight International
