Rolls-Royce’s CorporateCare power-by-the-hour offering is increasingly being seen as a safe bet by operators that do not want to roll the dice when it comes to engine support costs.
“Year-on-year growth is 40% in terms of contracts closed,” says Steve Friedrich, Rolls-Royce’s vice president sales and marketing for civil small and medium engines. “We’ve actually closed more contracts for CorporateCare than there have been Rolls-powered aircraft delivered so far this year,” he adds.
A total of 1,400 Rolls-powered business jets are now covered by CorporateCare, and more than 70% of new deliveries are being directly enrolled into the scheme, says Friedrich. The company says its AE3007, BR700-series and Tay corporate engines are meanwhile approaching 90 million hours of operation.
Rolls-Royce's Steve Friedrich. Image credit: Billypix
“The market has recognised the risk transfer and the increased asset liquidity that CorporateCare is enabling,” he says. “Operators are risk-averse, fiscally responsible and looking to preserve or improve asset value and liquidity, and CorporateCare covers all three of those aspects very well. What we’ve seen in the pre-owned market in particular is that if you’re enrolled in CorporateCare, the aircraft will sell at least twice as fast. That’s also indicative of the buyers market where buyers are looking to purchase a pre-owned aircraft and immediately start utilizing it, and they don’t want to be taking on any contingent liabilities or unknown future liabilities and maintenance. CorporateCare allows the operator to precisely predict what the cost of maintenance will be. There are no surprises.”
Friedrich says there has been a good take-up of the BR725 improvements announced at EBACE earlier this year, which included providing temporary alternative lift for any Gulfstream G650 operator whose aircraft required an unscheduled engine change.
“There has been no need to provide alternative lift as the BR725 has had a smooth entry into service,” he says.
Rolls celebrated the 50th anniversary of its CorporateCare offering at the 2012 NBAA convention.
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Source: Flight Daily News