On the Record with LARRY FLYNN, PRESIDENT, PRODUCT SUPPORT,
GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE, & PRESIDENT, GENERAL DYNAMICS AVIATION
SERVICES
Shut off investment when business turns down and you risk alienating
long-time customers who will abandon you when the market turns
upward. That's the operating philosophy for Larry Flynn, president
of product support for Gulfstream Aerospace, and president of
General Dynamics Aviation Services, who reports: "We're continuing
to invest heavily in product support even with the downturn in
the rest of the company's business."
Flynn says his job is to not forget that Gulfstream's in-service
fleet continues to grow-it's now at more than 1,400 aircraft-and
that the company's heavy investment in a third-party maintenance
operation can't be ignored.
"We have chosen to work on airplanes ourselves rather than
use third parties; they are our airplanes and we think we should
work on them," said Flynn, adding that 70% of all maintenance
on Gulfstream aircraft worldwide is spent at one of the company's
11 maintenance facilities.
The remaining 30%, or a portion thereof, will remain outside Gulfstream
control. Said Flynn: "We have no intention of trying to get
all of it because we want our customers to have an alternative."
In the Gulfstream orbit, that includes: Long Beach, CA; Dallas,
TX; Appleton, WI; Brunswick GA; Savannah, GA; and Luton, England.
General Dynamics Aviation Services' facilities are based in: Las
Vegas, NV; Dallas, TX (across the field from the Gulfstream facility);
Westfield, MA; and West Palm Beach, FL. Gulfstream and GDAS facilities
typically don't compete against each other because the GDAS sites
focus primarily on third-party maintenance of Challenger, Falcon
and Hawker business jets.
Gulfstream Product Support presently employs about 1,600 people;
another 400 work for GDAS.
The facility in Luton, England, is Gulfstream's most recent acquisition,
which was prompted by Marshall Aerospace-an authorized Gulfstream
maintenance firm for the past three decades-deciding to exit the
Gulfstream business. Left without a proper place in Europe, Gulfstream
bought the Luton site about six months ago from Signature Flight
Support-which was also the former owner of the four maintenance
facilities that are now under the GDAS banner.
Business at all the sites has been flat, says Flynn, with discretionary
spending off from last year's levels. That includes interior refurbishment
and paint, as well as non-mandate avionics. That has been counterbalanced
by scheduled maintenance and required avionics modifications such
as RVSM and TCAS.
Throughput for the 11 maintenance facilities will be the same
as last year, about 6,000 airplanes-half Gulfstreams and half
third-party aircraft. For the coming year, "there are signs
of encouragement with the economy, but I would have to guess what
would spill over into my business, but some discretionary work
will return."
One new area of growth that Flynn expects to be popular in the
coming years is retrofit of enhanced vision systems. Gulfstream
has pioneered EVS in its upper-end new-production business jets,
and that is now spilling over to the retrofit market. So far,
Gulfstream has retrofit 40 GVs and GIVs with EVS at a cost of
$500,000 each, assuming there is already a HUD installed (another
$500,000 item).
