Germany’s home-grown business jet, the Grob spN is going to be on display at ILA this week, breaking away from the company’s test programme. Although certification is behind schedule, chief executive Niall Olver, is adamant that “by year end we will be certified. We are all working hard to get there.”
Offering support for a new aircraft is always crucial to keeping customers, and at last week’s EBACE in Geneva, the company announced a support plan.
Olver says that Grob was able to announce the plan ahead of delivery because he believes the all-composite aircraft will be cheaper to operate than an all-metal aircraft. “Most manufacturers will not offer a maintenance programme like this until they’ve discovered failure rates and the aircraft has been in operation,” he says.
“We know that cost assurance plans like ours add resale value to the aircraft because the potential buyer knows that the aircraft has been properly maintained,” explains Olver. The programme will come in three flavours: Basic, Advanced and Premium.
Basic covers the airframe and avionics parts, including consumables as well as worldwide shipping of the parts. This level also includes technical publication updates.
Advanced includes Basic and adds labour costs for both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, component exchange and maintenance and spare part for the cabin interior.
While the Premium naturally includes Advanced but adds engine maintenance coverage through Williams’ Total Assurance Program for FJ44 operators.
In addition to its cost assurance programme for maintenance Grob has also partnered with FedEx to offer a fast delivery service.
This means that parts for the spN business jet will be stored at FedEx warehouses where FedEx can respond immediately to shipping requests from Grob.
Initially spares will be held at FedEx’s Memphis hub with plans to include other locations in the future.
“We know the importance of being able to source and deliver parts across North America. Top of our list with the spN programme is that as it enters service we can support it,” says Olver.
And on the back of creating a solid support network the company is also developing a new facility on the Swiss-side of Lake Constance at St. Gallen-Altenrhein
The new facility is earmarked to open in the second quarter of 2009 and initially create 100 jobs. This facility will become the European completions centre as well as training centre for the light jet.
St. Gallen-Altenrhein is located on the shores of Lake Constance and according to chief executive Niall Olver was chosen “because we believe it is an optimised location for our customers. The positive attitude from both the airport’s management and dignitaries in the region really convinced us that this region near Lake Constance is an efficient and obvious location to expand our workforce. Importantly we will be sourcing our own management and employees to work on the training and completions activities.”
Green aircraft will be ferried in from the factory at Tussenhausen-Mattsies near Munich, Germany. At St. Gallen-Altenrhein there will be a 2,000m2 hangar with space for six aircraft as well as 1,000m2 of workshops and 1,000m2 of offices.
A third hangar, which will be able to hold up to four aircraft, will also be available to Grob as it ramps up to one aircraft per week delivery schedule. North American customer aircraft will be ferried to Grob’s Portsmouth, New Hampshire facility for final delivery.
The new complex will also be host to a training centre featuring a full motion Level-D flight simulator and employ up to 20 training-related staff.
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About the spN The Grob SPn was revealed to the world at the Paris Airshow in June 2005 as a fully assembled aircraft – including a full interior concept mock-up. The first flight followed in July 2005 with the second prototype appearing at EBACE, Geneva in May 2006. The programme suffered a crash of the second prototype - Chief SPn test pilot Gerard Guillaumaud died in the accident. EASA certification was targeted for April 2008 with FAA certification three months later. It has now been put back to the end of this year. |
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Source: Flight Daily News
