Story ID: 348 FokkerEBACE18
First VIP ACJ319neo Finish Goes to Fokker
By: James Wynbrandt
Caption: Netherlands company to concentrate on lightweight interior in completion for long-time customer K5-Aviation.
Word Count: 366

The Netherlands’ Fokker Services, a division of GKN, was recently tapped by long-term customer K5-Aviation to design and perform the first VIP completion on an ACJ319neo. The project is slated to commence in May 2019, with redelivery scheduled in early 2020.

Jeff Armitage, Fokker’s managing director, said it is “a privilege that K5 selected our engineering and completion once more.” Luca Madone of Germany’s K5 called the contract award “a logical continuation of the existing relationship both companies have from previous projects,” adding, “We believe Fokker will deliver again on time and according to our highest expectations.”

Keeping the interior weight low to increase the aircraft’s range and payload is a focus of the completion, and that comes down to “how we build the monuments, how we construct a lot of the filling compounds, and special techniques and attention to reducing weight throughout,” said Johan van Dorst, Fokker’s sales director.

The previous ACJ Fokker completed for K5, which also features a lightweight interior, can fly nonstop from Munich to Tokyo—approximately 4,590 nm—and the customer wants to extend maximum range with the neo’s more fuel-efficient engines.

For its onboard connectivity, Fokker will install Gogo’s 2Ku-band service, as it did last year on the previous K5 ACJ, which made Fokker “the first one in the [European] market” with the 2Ku-band installation design and system integration approved under an EASA STC, van Dorst said.
 
Currently, Fokker is completing under contract to Boeing Business Jets a green BBJ ordered by the Dutch Government for transport of government officials and the Dutch Royal family. Fokker designed the interior—a two-cabin layout configured for 24 passengers—and the aircraft is scheduled for redelivery next year.

The activity represents a resurrection of Fokker’s completion services since its acquisition by GKN Aerospace in 2015. Fokker, an Airbus Approved Outfitter and Boeing Recommended Center, had largely retreated from the VIP completions and retrofit business following the global economic downturn at the end of the last decade, but is now ready to compete aggressively.

 

 
, full_html