Aircraft

By Emma Kelley in Perth

Cirrus Design has established its second aircraft re-assembly operation outside of the USA with a new facility in Brisbane, Australia, to cater for Australasian customers.

The Australian re-assembly operation is to be run by Brisbane-based Sunland Aviation, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cirrus Australasia and is responsible for the manufacturer’s sales, maintenance and training in the region.

The move follows strong sales of Cirrus aircraft in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Rim, particularly in Australia. At the beginning of this year Cirrus launched the re-assembly concept in a joint venture with Isle of Wight, United Kingdom-based Britten-Norman, which is re-assembling and delivering 100 SR20s and SR22s a year to Cirrus’s European customers.

Aircraft for customers in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Rim will be partially dismantled at the Cirrus manufacturing facility in Minnesota, USA, and shipped in a specially designed container to Brisbane where they will be re-assembled at Sunland’s Archerfield airport facility.

"We have already delivered our first Australian assembled aircraft to a customer and the process was smooth and successful," says Steve Maltby, director of Cirrus Australasia. Some 25 aircraft are expected to be assembled in Brisbane over the next year, he adds