Twenty years ago, Rolls-Royce introduced CorporateCare for its business aviation customers, creating a new standard for OEM support and establishing a benchmark in aftermarket service which remains unrivalled. Covering all unforeseen costs and unscheduled events worldwide, CorporateCare provides customers with increased availability, reduced management concerns, and unmatched peace of mind. It’s a crowning example of the company’s unrelenting efforts “to be recognized as #1 for services,” said Andy Robinson, SVP Services – Business Aviation, Rolls-Royce.
Today more than ever, Robinson noted, customers rely on business aviation, and as the world’s leading provider of business jet engines, Rolls-Royce understands its critical role in ensuring that the fleet and operators remain mission-ready. Its engines power some 4,000 business jets made by Bombardier, Embraer, Gulfstream, Textron, and soon to power Dassault aircraft.
“Time is often at a premium for the influential customers that tend to use the aircraft, so availability and reliability of the aircraft are essential,” said Robinson. “For our customers their aircraft are time machines. We understand the need to minimize any potential disruption and if an event occurs, the goal is to return the aircraft to service as soon as possible. As an OEM, we’re in a unique position to address these issues.”
However, Rolls-Royce didn’t simply rest on its success. With the 20th anniversary of CorporateCare the company launched the latest evolution of the program: CorporateCare Enhanced.
Since its introduction in 2019 Rolls-Royce has seen strong demand from customers around the world, who clearly recognize the value of this program. As the new standard, CorporateCare Enhanced extends the original program’s complete engine and recovery services coverage to include the nacelle, thrust reverser, and all related components, as well as parts erosion and corrosion.
“CorporateCare Enhanced is a turnkey solution for the powerplant,” Robinson summed up. “if we provide it, we cover it.”
One of the reasons for the success of CorporateCare Enhanced is certainly its development with valuable input from the company’s C3 Corporate Customer Council. This group comprises of owners and operators of Rolls-Royce powered business jets in fleets of varying sizes at locations worldwide, ensuring representative market feedback on a variety of service initiatives.
“As the fleet ages—we’re seeing an increase in nacelle-related requests, largely driven by thrust-reverser corrosion,” Robinson explained. “Our customers’ ask was to offer complete coverage for the full powerplant - including the nacelle and any gaps for on-wing maintenance services - providing a truly comprehensive solution.”
That change in coverage can have a positive impact on operators’ bottom lines: unexpected repair and replacement costs for nacelle-related parts and labor, lease of nacelle assets, and shipping “could cost up to $2 million,” he said. But, he added, “Our customers wanted peace of mind, and we worked with them to understand what it would take to provide that.”
The result is CorporateCare Enhanced, the new standard for CorporateCare coverage - and for all OEM engine-support programs. CorporateCare Enhanced is available for the Rolls-Royce Pearl and BR700 business aviation engines.
For the AE and Tay engines, CorporateCare Enhanced does not cover the nacelle, but extends additional line maintenance coverage, including troubleshooting and mobile repair travel for AOGs - another customer ask, as Robinson noted.
While CorporateCare Enhanced has become the standard for new customers, it is also available as an upgrade to existing program members, so they don’t have to make any compromises. Since the official start of the program, uptake from both groups has been “significantly higher than anticipated, with over a third of our fleet that’s on the program now covered by CorporateCare Enhanced” Robinson said.
The program is supported by the dedicated Rolls-Royce Business Aviation Service Network, which is “laser-focused on the needs of our business aviation customers,” Robinson said. The network comprises more than 1,000 dedicated personnel, over 75 authorized service centers worldwide, and a 24/7 Aircraft Availability Center, with more than 70 mobile service technicians positioned globally.
Additionally, the network has access to strategically placed store parts locations, along with over 160 lease engines, to ensure that world-class support is readily available to customers whenever required.
As it raises the bar on support service, moreover, Rolls-Royce is also focused on incorporating digital technologies to further enhance engine reliability and minimize the possibility of AOGs occurring, while improving its customers’ experience in operating the powerplants.
Under the company’s IntelligentEngine vision, its products and service will become indistinguishable due to advancements in digital capability. The new Pearl engine family, for example, will incorporate an Engine Vibration Health Monitoring Unit (EVHMU), an advanced diagnostic system that uses engine different indicators to predict optimum replacement times for line-replaceable units.
The EVHMU can measure about 10,000 parameters and feed the information into a system of cloud-based analytics, smart algorithms, and artificial intelligence. That enables the EVHMU to detect and record for example vibrations or even small temperature deviations and identify their likely sources, long before this could cause any disruptions for the customer.
These new, sophisticated tools also affect Rolls-Royce’s own service targets. “Retrospectively, our Key Performance Indicators looked very different ten years ago - it would have required 6-7 days to solve a standard AOG situation,” Robinson said. “Today, it takes us less than 24 hours, and we are already achieving more than 99 percent, but our ultimate goal is 100 percent averted missed trips. No business aircraft covered by CorporateCare or CorporateCare Enhanced should be in an AOG situation long enough to delay a planned flight.”
"And be assured, we won't be satisfied until we consistently achieve 100 percent averted missed trips, day in and day out," he promises.