Fast-growing NetJets Europe has awarded what is understood to be one of largest-ever paint contracts to an as-yet untried operation at Doncaster Robin Hood airport in the UK.
The Lisbon, Portugal-based operator - which is projecting 2008 deliveries will boost its fleet by nearly one-third to 174 aircraft - plans to send 50 Cessna Citations to Directions, a public sector body that has been charged by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward to develop aviation industry skills and is working with Marshall Business Aviation to establish a business jet maintenance centre of effort at the former cold war airbase.
Directions has managed all the £10 million ($15 million) costs of developing and maintaining the 5,100m² (55,000ft²) hangar to date - designed from the outset with help from Cessna support partner, Cambridge-based Marshall, which has its own fixed-base operation at Robin Hood.
"It will be essentially a partnership between Directions and Marshall, which will perform engineering on the aircraft. For Marshall, it is very much part of its effort to concentrate expertise in one area. For NetJets, the benefits lie in the ability to standardise paint specification of the highest environmental quality," says a source close to the contract.
Negotiations are understood to be ongoing for aircraft refurbishment activity on the NetJets Citation fleet, a continuous upgrade effort that Directions hopes will further its plans to develop heavy maintenance for business jets.
Work on the 50 aircraft, the oldest Citations within the NetJet fleet and acquired between 2003 and 2007, will start in the first quarter of 2009. The airport's Hangar No 2 will be renovated to provide dedicated paint facilities, where modular pods will be installed as part of a further £5 million investment.
News of the contract was disclosed at the official opening of Marshall's new £5 million executive aviation centre at the company's Cambridge airport, which combines executive handling services and a 4,645m² maintenance facility.
A Cessna service centre for the past 30 years, the newly extended business aviation maintenance facility will help the business achieve accelerated growth of 6%, building on top of recent growth of 4%.
Allan McGreal, Marshall's head of business and general aviation, says the integrated service philosophy is geared to meet the needs of its largest fleet client NetJets. "Individual operators reap the rewards of that approach," he says, adding that the objective is to grow capacity with the new hangar and extend capability and service levels, taking on Citation X and Sovereign work in the first quarter of 2009 and larger aircraft types by the end of the year.
Source: Flight International
