Piaggio Aero today unveiled a new look as a "luxury brand", as it rolled out plans to break into non-traditional markets and double the size of its service network in North America.
The Italian company behind the Avanti II twin-pusher will begin to market the aircraft in Brazil for the first time at the end of the year. After that, it will target Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela.
Also in the company's sights are the Middle East and India - its major shareholders are Abu Dhabi investment house Mubadala and Indian industrial giant Tata - and Australia, where the aircraft has huge potential in the medevac market, says John Bingham, executive vice-president marketing and sales.
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The company - which sells almost exclusively in Europe and North America - wants 30% of its sales to come from the rest of the world in five years.
The latest logo and color scheme is being displayed on the Avanti II on the company's booth (1097), which also has an updated interior. Piaggio is also stressing its relationship with luxury car maker Ferrari, with which it shares shareholders and a heritage and whose Formula 1 team it sponsors.
"Our new image is more contemporary. Our message is that we are a different company today. Our stand exudes what the Piaggio brand is about with Ferraris and yachts," says Bingham, who joined from Cirrus Design earlier this year.
Piaggio will also have doubled the size of its service network to 14 approved centers by the end of the year. "Our competitors would always say that our biggest drawback was the lack of service centers. Now almost all our customers in North America will be within an hour's flight of an authorised center," he says.
Source: Flight Daily News
