Dany Kleiman completed his full-time service in the Israel Air Force in 1991, serving in the aircraft department of the material directorate and achieving the rank of major. He joined the Israel Aircraft Industries, commercial aircraft group in 1997 and became manager of the galaxy program in 1998. In 1999, he founded the business aircraft directorate and served as its director until early 2003 when he was appointed manager of the production division of the IAI commercial aircraft group. In 2006, Kleiman was appointed corporate VP and GM of IAI’s Bedek Aviation Group.

AM: What is your greatest accomplishment since you became VP and GM of the aviation group?

Kleiman: During this period of time, I am proud to say that we had focused on our core business activities, namely passenger to cargo conversions, airframe heavy maintenance and selected engines and components MRO, which led to a significant improvement in our revenues and profitability. Additionally, we had implemented an aggressive marketing and sales campaign, thus making sure that we bring the expected value to our customers around the globe.

AM: Why did Bedek’s sales double in the past six years?

Kleiman: The significant increase in our sales and backlog is due to business focus on the development of the IAI/Bedek owned STCs for the passenger to cargo conversions, refueling systems and platforms, new engines and components. Implementation of an aggressive marketing and sales campaign in conjunction with lean management techniques, operational excellence and working with our customers on adding value to their business objectives, enabled Bedek to grow both in revenues and profitability. Establishment of worldwide Joint Ventures (JV) to support our conversions and MRO activities provided another vehicle for our success.

AM: What area of maintenance is Bedek finding most of its work?

Kleiman: Most of our business comes from aircraft conversions, wide-body heavy maintenance, nose to tail narrow body maintenance work on Boeing and Airbus aircraft and MRO in the engines and components arenas. Our aim is to provide full service to our customers under the "Full Service Provider" arrangement using any business arrangement suitable for our customers.

AM: How long does it take a team to convert a Pax to Cargo? What is involved?

Kleiman: The time taken to perform a conversion depends on the type of aircraft. B737 takes up to two-and-a-half months; B767 up to three-and-a-half months; B747 up to four months.

The work involves manufacturing a pre-assembled surround structure, which not only ensures the quality of the conversion, but also reduces the time that the aircraft is grounded. During the time the aircraft is undergoing conversion, it also undergoes heavy maintenance, which reduces the cost to the end customer and invariably does not increase the turn around time (TAT). The stages involved are: design and production of the customized tailored kit; removal of all passenger support systems; installing the main deck cargo door and surround structure; reinforcing/replacing the floor structure; ensuring that the cargo compartment meets the Class E regulation requirements; one-minute smoke detection system installation, etc.; and landing and take off weights upgrades.

AM: Bedek specializes in Boeing conversions, what was the most complicated project and why?

Kleiman: Each aircraft candidate to undergo Pax to Cargo conversion is a challenge. Modern aircraft require additional design tasks, to meet new aviation regulations. The most challenging aircraft from our production line was the first B747-400. Bedek Aviation Group is happy and proud of its achievement, regarding this particular conversion, especially because of the STC certification simultaneously vis-à-vis three different Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA-Israel/FAA/EASA).

AM: IAI Bedek owns Empire Aero Center in N.Y., what is your relationship like? What type of work are they performing and for who?

Kleiman: We own EAC via our USA subsidiary — IAII. Being a chairman of the board of EAC, I ensure that the activities of EAC are fully streamlined with the global strategy of Bedek. We have appointed a highly skilled team of leaders under Brian Olsen, who is the president of EAC, and are performing there periodical airframe checks and heavy maintenance visits to various customers e.g. Atlas Air; USA 3000, Airtran; Transaero (Russia); Air Canada, World Airways. The primary goal of EAC is to become a center of excellence for Airbus product line focusing on Blue Chip customers, to support Bedek’s conversion activities and maintain the potential capability for C-130 heavy maintenance as well.

AM: What are some of the recent engines Bedek has bench tested?

Kleiman: It is our intention to expand our product line by introducing a new engine type every 18 to 24 months. The next products we will be concentrating on are the CFM56-5 and CF-34 engines, these in addition to of the full current capability for the JT8, JT9, CFM56-3, CFM56-7, P&W 4000 and several military engines as well.

AM: Are you finding new components require additional training for employees or longer TAT for customers?

Kleiman: The new generation of components being more digital and computerized requires additional specialized training for our employees. This type of training usually takes longer than similar training for older generation equipment. The TAT though gets shorter (to the benefit of our customers) due to the fact that we use adequate and highly computerized diagnostics and repair techniques.

AM: You employ thousands of people. How many mechanics do you employ and what type of certifications do you require from them? Are they involved in ongoing training?

Kleiman: Bedek employs more than 2,100 mechanics (out of a total of 3,500), which perform work on aircraft, engines and components in the mechanics, avionics or sheet-metal disciplines. The majority of these employees hold a technician’s certificate and a type-rating certificate from the CAA-I (Civil Aviation Authority-Israel). Bedek Aviation provides professional training in order to qualify mechanics for the different product types on which Bedek performs work, and all refresher training, per CAA requirements. All this training is conducted within IAI premises, in the training center, which is approved by various CAAs. Eighteen different worldwide Civil Aviation Authorities approve Bedek Aviation Group as a repair station.

AM: Where are you finding new mechanics as older people retire or move on?

Kleiman: Our manpower resources rely mainly on technical trained mechanics out of the Israel Air Force following completion of their compulsory term of duty. Others come directly out of high technical institutes graduating as engineers or from schools from other countries of origin, Israel being a melting pot of cultures.

AM: Have you formed any strategic partnerships? If so, what types of programs do you offer?

Kleiman: Strategic partnerships are one of the most important engines to support our strategic global growth. These are formed to support development and marketing of our conversion programs as well as MRO capabilities in all areas. In the conversion arena, the JVs in place are: P.S.F. for B747-400 cargo conversions program and M&B (with Mitsui Co.) for B767-300 program. In the engine MRO arena we maintain strategic relationships with Chromalloy for strategic engines parts and refurbishment cooperation and with Volvo for Engines parts strategic collaboration. We strive to develop strategic relationships with our customers such as Gecas, Aircastle, Avion, DVB, ABX-Air, CHI, DHL, Astar, TNT, Delta, Alitalia, Airtran, Evergreen Int. and many others.

AM: Where do you see the most growth in the upcoming decade?

Kleiman: The most growing sectors of our business in the next decade, we believe, are cargo conversions, engines MRO and Landing Gears, MRO.

AM: Does the Bedek Aviation Group promote a green environment through recycling, using non-toxic chemicals or special lighting in the hangars?

Kleiman: Bedek Aviation Group as part of IAI overall policy promotes and participates in all relevant "Green Programs" related to energy savings, recycling of non-toxic materials, waste of hazardous materials, etc.

AM: Anything else you would like to add?

Kleiman: I would like to emphasize that it is our aim to work with our customers as partners, to make sure that we bring them the right value in terms of quality, economics, flexibility and our global positioning in product support.