NBAA Watch – Cessna

Cessna Service Centers Preparing Open
Cessna’s service centers at Mesa, Greensboro, the UK and India are set to open shortly.

Mesa
The majority of employees at Cessna’s Long Beach, Calif. facility will move to the Citation Service Center’s new location at Mesa in January as part of the company’s efforts to provide better customers service with expanded space and capability.
More than 65 percent of the current workforce at Long Beach accepted Cessna’s offer to move to Mesa. To help in the decision, Cessna offered employees an expense-paid visit to Mesa during the past few months to tour the area.
Cessna also took advantage of the new construction to implement Textron Six Sigma methods in the design and set-up of the new facility.
“This will be the most efficient Cessna-owned Citation Service Center, thanks to the use of these special tools that allow us to perform Citation aircraft maintenance with increased velocity,” Stan Younger, vice president, service facilities said.

Greensboro
Cessna also announced completion of the expansion of the company service center in Greensboro, N.C., one of the company’s busiest centers, adding more than 69,000 sq. ft. of ramp space bringing the total ramp space to more than 137,300 sq. ft.
“Our Greensboro Citation Service Center is a popular maintenance location for our customers. With the growing business at this facility, we made this improvement to enhance our customer’s experience,” Younger.

ROW
Cessna gained corporate approval to build a new European Citation Service Center in Spain to keep ahead of the growing fleet demands in the region. The Spanish facility will complement the Citation Service Center operating at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris since 1997.
“We have almost 900 Citations in Europe and the number grows every month, so we need the additional capacity to continue to provide the high quality service our customers are used to getting,” said Mark Paolucci, senior vice president, customer service. “We conducted an extensive location search before deciding on Spain, and we are very pleased with the cooperation from Spanish authorities.”
Paolucci said Cessna and Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) in Madrid have signed a letter of intent to develop a site in Spain and are working on specific details toward a final contract. Cessna hopes to break ground on the new facility in 2009 and begin operations there in late 2010.
Cessna’s current Citation service network spans the globe with 10 company-owned service centers and more than two dozen authorized service centers.
The company also said that the Le Bourget Airport (LBJ/LFPG) facility received European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Continuous Airworthiness Management Part M, Subpart G certification. Cessna is the first service facility in France to receive this certification for general aviation (equivalent to FAR 91).
“Currently under EASA regulations, all European-registered aircraft must receive an annual re-certification (called Airworthiness Review). By receiving this certification, Cessna is now authorized to perform inspections for this re-certification that are typically done by EASA Member States Civil Aviation Authorities,” said Cessna’s Vice President of Service Facilities Stan Younger.
Subpart G certification essentially covers all general aviation aircraft, accounting for a majority of the Citations in service in Europe. Cessna expects to receive full certification for Part M, Subpart G and Subpart I by the end of the month.
Other important enhancements at the Paris Citation Service Center include the recently announced initiative to nearly double Citation parts inventories at this facility and all authorized service facilities throughout Europe as well as the introduction of mobile unplanned maintenance teams. These teams respond to aircraft on ground situations, carry a specialized parts inventory and arrange for timely delivery of other parts as necessary.
“These enhancements are important steps in our commitment to increase our capabilities for the more than 900 Citation customers in this region,” Younger said.
Cessna Aircraft appointed TANEJA Aerospace & Aviation Ltd. in India and Kinch Aviation in the United Kingdom as new Citation authorized service facilities. TANEJA (TAAL), now a Citation Authorized Service Station, located at Hosur Airport (V095) outside Bangalore City, manufactures general aviation aircraft, aero structures and aircraft parts. TAAL is also Cessna’s Authorized Sales Representative in India. There are 22 Citations operating in India.
Kinch Aviation is a Citation Authorized Service Center, located at Retford Gamston Airport (RGA/EGNE) in Nottinghamshire and offers scheduled and unscheduled service and maintenance for all 500 series Citation models. It also provides mobile aircraft management. Kinch Aviation is a partner with Cessna’s Authorized Sales Representative in the U.K. There are 105 Citations operating in the U.K.
The two new service facilities join more than 30 Authorized Service Facilities around the world, plus 10 Cessna-operated Citation Service Centers.