Story ID: 351 StandardAero
StandardAero Looks Back and Ahead
By: David A. Lombardo
Caption: 
Word Count: 570
“During our 2010 NBAA press conference we sent a clear message to the industry: we do what we say we’re going to do. In the past four years we have experienced a 16-percent compound annual growth rate, with almost 20-percent growth as we continue to evolve our CompleteCare strategy beyond the basic MRO services,” Scott Taylor, senior vice president of business aviation for StandardAero (Booth No. 2000), told AIN.

StandardAero news during this year’s NBAA Convention includes the announcement that in California it has opened a shop at Van Nuys Airport and launched a mobile avionics repair service in the Los Angeles area. The company also announced a partnership with TrueNorth Avionics, for which StandardAero will be the exclusive provider of certification services. And it has signed an agreement with Universal Weather and Aviation to provide StandardAero customers with a Uvair card with no fees and no minimum fuel purchase required for discounts.

Taylor said that to pursue the goals set three years ago the company established a customer advisory board, which meets regularly to advise the MRO about what clients want from their maintenance provider. This has helped the company refocus on nose-to-tail, single-contact service for its customers. Taylor explained that only StandardAero has both Hawker 800 airframe and Honeywell TFE731 engine core capability. “There are more TFE731s than any other engine, and our factory-trained turbine engine specialists recently surpassed 17,000 engine events on the TFE731, performing more core zone inspections and major periodic inspections than any other maintenance repair organization in the world.”

StandardAero’s CompleteCare program also applies to the Learjet 30 and 40 series, Challenger 600 series, Falcon 20/50/900 series, Embraer 600/650 and the Astra. It has just signed a letter of agreement with Embraer to add Legacy 450/500 authorized service center approval for airframe, engine and APU MRO.

Taylor said StandardAero has added services to make a customer’s visit more productive. The company has entered into an agreement with CAE to conduct airframe maintenance training at StandardAero’s Springfield, Ill. facility so customers can receive training while keeping oversight of their maintenance event. StandardAero is also initiating APU road shows to provide maintenance training.

In an effort to go beyond MRO services, Taylor told NBAA’12 attendees that the company has developed a maintenance advisory program for customers who do not have a director of maintenance. “We can take care of the logbooks and recommend maintenance and really make sure that the customer’s aircraft is well taken care of,” he said. “We don’t require that the customer use our facilities for the maintenance that we recommend,” he continued. At this point the company has one customer in the new program.

StandardAero also unveiled a financial advisory program here that it says allows the company to interact more closely with the principal financial backer of what could be future customers. “It is a great start to a relationship,” said Kyle Hultquist, vice president of marketing and communications for the company.

StandardAero has also enhanced its digital services footprint with the launch of a new customer support “smart app” that provides one-touch access to customer support for AOG events. The new app is currently for the iPhone and iPad and is available through Apple’s App Store or through iTunes. The company has also undertaken a major redesign of its website to make it more customer-centric.