Bombardier plans to offer a complete nose-to-tail maintenance programme for its Pratt & Whitney PW1000G-powered CSeries family.
"We'll take care of all the maintenance through a power-by-the-hour programme and we'll have a menu so that, if the customer wants to do the airframe maintenance itself - but wants us to help them on the systems - we can do that," Bombardier CSeries commercial aircraft president Gary Scott told ATI just hours after Lufthansa inked a firm order for 30 CSeries aircraft plus 30 options.
Scott notes that maintenance requirements vary from airline to airline. "If you look at Lufthansa, they like to do a lot of things themselves, so they will. On the engine side, Pratt & Whitney will offer its normal power-by-the-hour programme."
Bombardier is not the first airframer to offer a comprehensive product support programme for a new aircraft type.
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Boeing notably developed its GoldCare programme to give a single contact point for 787 customers, and deliver material management, engineering and maintenance services for the new twinjet at predictable costs. The programme offers flexibility, allowing customers to pick and choose among the services.
Last year, Bombardier revealed to ATI that it would be prepared to offer a similar total support programme should the need arise. At that time, Mike Kanaley, vice-president and general manager of fleet management and service programmes for Bombardier's services division, said the firm would leverage its supplier networks "and if that works for the customer that works for us".
Following yesterday's supervisory board approval, Lufthansa signed a firm purchase agreement for 30 CSeries model CS100. The aircraft was formerly designated the C110.
Lufthansa's aircraft will be configured with 115 seats, and will be used by subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines to replace Avro RJ100s from 2014.
Scott says, however, that Bombardier is still planning entry-into-service (EIS) for the CSeries in the second half of 2013. He notes that while Swiss is a launch operator, "they are not maybe the first operator".
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
