The General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported that worldwide deliveries of general aviation airplanes dropped by 9.3 percent compared to the first three quarters of last year, to 1,602 airplanes from 1,767.

Piston-engine airplane shipments grew during the first three quarters of 2003, by 0.2 percent, while turboprops dropped 4.1 percent and business jets dropped 32.1 percent.

Billings during the first three quarters were down by 24.4 percent, to $6.43 billion from $8.50 billion last year.

Bombardier Closing Tucson Completion Center

In a cost-cutting move, Bombardier is closing facilities in Tucson, Arizona that performed completions on green Learjets and Challengers. Those completions will be done henceforth at the factory. Learjets will be finished at the main Learjet assembly facility in Wichita, Kansas. And green Challengers will have paint, interiors, and other passenger amenities and safety equipment installed at the factory in Dorval, Quebec (Canada).

The Tucson closing is projected to save Bombardier $25 million per year and reduce production cycle times and inventory levels. Given that the Learjet 45, the newest Learjet in the Bombardier family, is completed as the final step in the assembly process at the Wichita factory, it is not surprising that Bombardier chose to adopt this method for its other business jets. Gulfstream has also seen great improvements in manufacturing efficiency by doing more of the completion work on the factory assembly line for certain models.

Bombardier’s Business Aviation Services maintenance facility in Tucson remains open for business, plus Bombardier will open a Regional Aircraft Service Centre in Tucson, projected to account for 300 new jobs. The completion business consolidation includes a reduction of 800 jobs during the next 15 to 18 months.

Aviation Whistleblower Claim Dismissed

A Miami federal judge dismissed a state whistleblower claim brought by a former maintenance supervisor at a Hialeah, Florida aircraft repair center.

U.S. District Judge Paul Huck ruled in his June decision that the claim should have been filed under the federal Airline Deregulation Act (ADA), which prohibits states from enacting or enforcing laws that affect "price, route, or service" of an air carrier.

James Tucker, a supervisor in the generator repair division of Hamilton Sundstrand, filed the claim about one month after the company fired him. Tucker alleged he was terminated for complaining to management that the company was violating federal aviation regulations by failing to follow proper written procedures for some repairs and properly completing paperwork on aircraft generators.

The federal act’s whistleblower protection program was established in 2000 to prevent employee discrimination against workers that report violations.

"The ADA’s whistle-blower protection program provides the exclusive remedy for Tucker’s whistleblower claim," Huck wrote. Because Tucker failed to file a claim under the ADA within the 90-day time limit after his termination, he could not take advantage of that remedy. Tucker’s attorney declined to comment.

"Tucker filed his case in circuit court without going through the process set out in the Airline Deregulation Act," said Gregor Schwinghammer Jr., attorney for defense counsel Gunster Yoakley & Stewart in West Palm Beach, Florida. "The judge ruled [that] states cannot pre-empt the ADA."

However, judicial views differ on state pre-emption. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in August ruled on a similar case, Branche v. AirTran, that the plaintiff’s whistleblower claim was not pre-empted by the ADA because pre-emption would not advance the pro-competitive goals of the statute.

"Both the Tucker and Branche cases have raised the issue of pre-emption," said Schwinghammer. "This will force plaintiffs to look at whistleblower claims more carefully."

LBAS Remaining at Berlin Schönefeld

The news that Berlin Brandenburg International Airport will not be opening, at least for a long time, is not going to upset Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services, the business jet MRO company based at the one-time East Berlin airport of Schönefeld.

Preliminary work on development of the Brandenburg airport into a massive new international facility to serve as the single airport for Berlin has been stopped, with all future work shelved following a breakdown in negotiations between the city and the private contractors. The degree of cost of the project to be met by the private contractors, together with the price to be paid for the land and the various risk factors involved, are said to have led to a stalemate.

For Lufthansa Bombardier Avia-tion Services, however, it is business as usual. While it has always been envisaged that more hangar space would be needed in the long term to handle growth, the current wranglings "have no effect upon us at all," said Andreas Kaden, managing director of the Lufthansa sister company. Schönefeld is home to LBAS and will remain so for a long time to come.

Serving in the unique capacity of maintenance provider to European operators of Bombardier Challengers and Learjets, LBAS is busier than ever, increasing business by 25 percent in the past year, with an increase of 25 percent in revenue. Orders for work on aircraft now total 500, and a weekend shift has been introduced, meaning that LBAS now has a seven-day-a-week operation, Kaden told Aviation Maintenance. Total workforce is up from last year’s 95 to 110.

As part of the aim to provide improvements and expansion of customer services, the company recently introduced a resident aircraft interior service, performed under a contractual arrangement with LBAS by the German firm EIS Aircraft of Dahlem, near Cologne. Formerly subcontracted to a variety of firms, aircraft interior work including cleaning, seat repair and renewal, painting, and modifications are all now performed by EIS Aircraft, which company has opened a branch at Schönefeld.

The choice of Schönefeld Airport for LBAS, a joint venture between Bombardier and Lufthansa Technik, was considered clever, and the continuing strength of LBAS confirms this. "The new airport will be built in due course but, for the moment, not by the private sector," Kaden explained. As the city of Berlin is reportedly bankrupt and the central government currently has a major budget deficit, it seems that the only changes likely to be made for some time at Schönefeld are the positive ones of LBAS.

ILS Adds Supplier Accreditation to E-Market

Whoever coined the phrase, "caveat emptor" or let the buyer beware, must have had the Internet in mind. You never really know who is selling what. And, when you’re dealing with aviation parts, that can be a costly, if not dangerous situation. "Aircraft parts are extremely expensive and very regulated," explained Bruce Langsen, president of online aviation marketplace Inventory Locator Service (ILS). "So what we did, at the request of a number of our airline and MRO customers, was to create an opportunity for buyers to see what kind of accreditation a parts supplier actually has."

To accomplish this goal, ILS created its new Accredited Vendor Program, which will enable the 200 airlines and 700 MROs that are ILS service subscribers to identify accredited suppliers. Langsen said that the ILSmart web site (www.ilsmart.com) will not only show buyers which companies are accredited, it will list which standards they meet. Accreditation can include any of the following certifications: FAA-0056A (supplier accreditation program), an ISO 9000 series, or FAA/JAA 145 repair station. If they do not have one of these accreditations, the supplier can submit to an ILS Accredited Vendor Program Audit, which will be conducted by the Aviation Suppliers Association.

By listing the various accreditations, the buyer and seller both benefit because it provides a way for the companies that have taken the steps to gain industry certification to differentiate themselves from companies that have not. Also, to help speed the search, Langsen explained that the accredited companies would be listed first among the companies responding to a customer’s query.

"We currently have 10,000 users in 78 countries doing an average of 45,000 transaction sets per day," Langsen added, "and now with the implementation of the ILS Accredited Vendor Program and the accompanying enhancements to our site, buyers will be better able to locate qualified suppliers who can provide the products they need when they need them."