Avborne Sells Accessory Division to Sargent

Dover Corporation has purchased Avborne Accessory Group from the owners of the Avborne businesses based in Miami, Florida. Avborne will continue its heavy aircraft maintenance operation at Miami International Airport, while the Accessory Group becomes part of Dover's Sargent division.

Eddie Montalvo will remain at the leadership post at Avborne Accessory, and the Avborne name will be retained. "Like other Sargent companies," said Marcel Zondag, Sargent's vice president business development, "we do keep a certain brand identity. Avborne will be fully integrated within the realm of the Sargent group of companies."

The acquisition signals a move by Sargent to align its subsidiary companies in a market-focused fashion. "This is the cornerstone of the aftermarket group," Zondag said. And Avborne will likely be added to, he continued, if the right company can be found to add to Sargent's aftermarket operations.

"This is the cornerstone of the aftermarket group," Zondag said. Prior to buying Avborne Accessory, "we lacked a certain amount of mass in the aftermarket. And with mass comes diversity." Sargent has always operated repair facilities for its own products such as hydraulic components. And the trend in the aviation marketplace has been for airlines to seek multiple services from single providers. "Airlines are willing to look at getting broad component support in families of parts," he explained. "Avborne Accessory has seven shops. That allows you to offer your customer broader support. Combine that with our engineering prowess as an OEM and the financial strength of Dover...it's basically a move that allows us to meet the more comprehensive needs of airlines that are outsourcing chunks of stuff and small airlines looking to outsource, too."

Sargent will continue to grow its aerospace activities, according to Zondag, with the financial backing of Dover. "We don't want to grow for growth's sake," he said. "It has to make sense, it has to be profitable for the shareholders and the company. The Dover board believes in aerospace in the long run. There's tremendous growth in Asia that's going to happen."

To take advantage of that growth, Sargent will look at engineering and production opportunities outside the U.S. "We've opened a production facility in Mexico," Zondag said, "and we're heavily investigating setting up some engineering support in India. It's becoming more of a global industry. We've got to face the reality of where the action is, both in business models and locations. This is all just geared towards placing ourselves in that marketplace and placing our band in the middle of it."

SR Technics Drops FLS Aerospace Brand Name

Maintenance provider SR Technics has fully integrated FLS Aerospace, which it purchased last June. FLS's U.K. and Ireland operations are now renamed SR Technics UK and SR Technics Ireland, with the original Swiss company branded as SR Technics Switzerland.

The integration took six months and included extensive training to introduce SR Technics's values and restructuring of the various business units to fit the commercial aviation maintenance marketplace. Each location will be a "Focused Service Centre" for specific products, according to the company, as follows:

• Switzerland-Airbus: component support and base, line, technical, and engine services.
• U.K.-Boeing: light and line maintenance, component support, and technical services.
• Ireland-Airbus, Boeing: heavy and line maintenance, modifications, component support. The Dublin, Ireland facility is also the center for engineering design, with EASA 21 design approval.

Now that the FLS integration is completed, SR Technics plans to implement an SAP enterprise IT system, adding SAP to the U.K. and Ireland operations, and to grow market share both by acquisitions and organic growth.

SR Technics also announced in early February that it is merging its Airbus and Boeing component businesses into one joint asset-management business. Mike Humphreys, who is also CEO of SR Technics UK, will run the new joint component business. All SR Technics purchasing and logistics will be conducted by the component business, as well as management of rotable inventories.

DynCorp/Sabreliner Team Wins C-21A Maintenance Contract

Three companies vied for the contract to maintain the U.S. Air Force's fleet of C-21As (Learjet 35As) when the program recently came up for renewal. The winning bidder of the airframe depot contract was DynCorp, which is owned by CSC. And for its partner, the company that will do the work on the airplanes, DynCorp chose Sabreliner.

Sabreliner plans to do the C-21A depotlevel maintenance (heavy maintenance and inspections) at its Perryville, Missouri facility. The value of the subcontract to Sabreliner is about $17 million over five years.

There are 76 C-21As in the fleet stationed at seven locations. The Air Force uses the jets to carry passengers and cargo and for medical transport.

The airframe depot contract was previously held by L-3 Com's Vertex Aerospace division. The previous contract was for 10 years and was originally awarded to ESystems's ServAir. E-Systems was sold to Raytheon, then Raytheon sold the subsidiary that eventually became Vertex in 2001.

A team led by Boeing was the other major contractor bidding on the C-21A program. Boeing had selected a Learjet specialist company called Spectra Jet, based in Springfield, Ohio for the heavy maintenance subcontracting role.

"You win some, you lose some," said Spectra Jet co-founder John Yegerlehner. "It would have been huge. We spent nine months planning for that, but we'll press on. Maybe the company that won may need some help." In the meantime, Spectra Jet is keeping busy with its regular customers' Learjet maintenance needs, which continue to grow year over year, according to Yegerlehner.

As for Vertex Aerospace, "we are disappointed in the decision," said spokesman Chris Blount, "yet we are committed to ensuring a seamless transition for our Air Force customer in this program."

Sabreliner has a long history of providing maintenance support for governmentoperated aircraft and engines, including the C-20 (Gulfstream) T-39 (Sabre jet), T-33, T-37, and T-2, and also manufacturing parts for military aircraft. The C-20 program ended last year.

Sabreliner's maintenance technicians have plenty of experience on the C-21, because the company did subcontracting to Vertex. "We've been working on Learjets and C-21s for a while," said Jim Meier, Sabreliner vice president of government services. "This is a good contract for us."

Under the subcontract, Sabreliner had done much heavy maintenance on the C- 21 fleet, having completed 58 12,000-hour (Air Force Phase 16) inspections. Those will begin to wind down during the next few years, Meier said, but at the same time, the Phase 14 or 12-year inspection will ramp up and keep Perryville busy.

DynCorp is responsible for tracking the maintenance requirements for the C-21 fleet, according to Meier, and also for the operational and intermediate maintenance, which corresponds to line and routine maintenance in the civilian world. Sabreliner's contract is for the depot-level maintenance, which involves major inspections, repairs, and possibly some modification work.

"We've got a highly trained staff of technicians with a lot of Learjet experience," said Meier.