Story ID: 
Cessna reaffirms European customer service expansion plans
By: David A. Lombardo
Caption: Cessna Aircraft is increasing the number of parts stocked at its European distribution facility in Amsterdam.
Word Count: 189
Cessna Aircraft is increasing the number of parts stocked at its European distribution facility in Amsterdam. It shares the facility with Textron sister company Bell. Brad Thress, Cessna senior vice president for customer service, said the company plans to increase part numbers available at the Amsterdam Schiphol facility this year from 3,500 to more than 10,000. The expansion is part of an ongoing program to increase the company’s Citation customer service footprint in Europe. Earlier this year Cessna broke ground for a new factory Citation service center in Valencia, Spain to augment the Paris service center. According to Cessna there are more than 1,300 Citations based in Europe. The new facility will include 64,000 sq ft of hangar space and about 88,000 sq ft of office, storage and shop space. Approximately 20 employees have been hired and are attending FlightSafety maintenance training in Spain. Cessna also recently opened a new, 32,000-sq-ft line maintenance facility in Prague. It shares hangar space with Bell Helicopter’s service facility at Prague Ruzyně International Airport. The EASA certified the operation in February and it is already conducting scheduled and unscheduled maintenance operations.