On the Record with
LARRY FLYNN, PRESIDENT, GULFSTREAM PRODUCT SUPPORT, & PRESIDENT, GENERAL DYNAMICS AVIATION SERVICES

For service and maintenance operations, expansion is usually a good thing. And with Gulfstream and parent General Dynamics set to disclose six new service centers at NBAA this week, plans to capture additional maintenance work on their aircraft as well as third-party planes are becoming self-evident.

Four of the six new facilities are authorized service centers under the Gulfstream Product Support banner: Aerocardal, Santiago, Chile, for G100 (Astra SPX aircraft); Aerocentro, Caracas, Venezuela, for the entire Gulfstream fleet; Riana Taxi Aereo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for G100 and G200 (Galaxy) aircraft; and Varig Engineering and Maintenance, Rio, for the entire Gulfstream fleet.

The other two are General Dynamics Aviation Services (GDAS) authorized line service centers. They are: Elcorta, New Castle County Airport, Wilmington, Del., for Westwind aircraft; and Trimec Aviation, Meacham Airport, Fort Worth, Texas, also for the Westwind. (Gulfstream received Westwind product support from Israel Aircraft Industries in the Galaxy deal.)

One of the main responsibilities of the Gulfstream operation has been developing capabilities on the G100 and G200 aircraft.

"While continuing our focus and investment on legacy aircraft, we've added on top of that the need to get the G100 and G200 up to a high level of product support, particularly getting G200 reliability up to speed," Larry Flynn, president of Gulfstream Product Support, as well as GDAS president, told Show News. "There's been a substantial improvement in product support on the G100 and G200.

"We are there now and we were not there a year ago."

There are 50-plus G200s presently in service, and Gulfstream has trained about 200 technicians on the aircraft. Gulfstream handles all maintenance for the G200 because it is still under warranty.

Gulfstream Product Support presently employs about 1,600 people and has five service centers: Long Beach, Calif.; Appleton, Wis.; Dallas, Texas; Brunswick, Ga.; and Savannah, Ga. It specializes in maintaining Gulfstream aircraft.

GDAS employs 400 at Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Dallas, West Palm Beach, and Westfield, Mass. It specializes in third-party support of Challenger, Falcon and Hawker business jets, and has substantially grown the business over the past year-especially with the acquisition of several regional maintenance centers from Signature.

In the year 2000, when Gulfstream had just the three facilities it had purchased from K-C Aviation, the total organization worked on 1,900 Gulfstream aircraft and 1,000 other corporate airplanes. By the end of this year, Flynn estimates that as many as 3,000 Gulfstreams and another 3,000 non-Gulfstream aircraft will pass through the Gulfstream/GDAS hangars.

Beside the announcement of the new service centers this week, Flynn says Gulfstream will bring forth a new service called "Premier Interior Refurbishments," an effort to standardize interior offerings around a high-quality set of products while still giving customers their choice on colors, fabrics, and other options. Flynn says such standardization will reduce the cost of completions by as much as 50% compared to such competitors as Midcoast or Duncan.

"We're trying to get to 80% standardization of interior across our product line," he says. "That will keep our costs and the customer's costs down, it will reduce downtime during completions or refurbishment, and it will facilitate better product support."
Premier Interior Refurbishments will initially be offered on Gulfstream IV and Gulfstream V aircraft, followed by the G100 and G200. Later, the interiors will be available for Challengers, Falcons and Hawkers, too.

By Barry Rosenberg