The newly installed chief executive of Boeing Global Services has underlined the importance of the UAE and the Middle East for the company’s services business.
Ted Colbert stepped into one of the company’s most important roles in October. The Dubai air show is his first major event in his new capacity.
Left, Ted Colbert
BillyPix
“I’m excited to be with our partners here,” he says. “My time will be spent getting to know our customers, our partners, and looking for ways to better partner in the region…We have a lot of opportunity for that.”
Colbert made the remarks in a media briefing, where he shared the stage with the heads of Boeing’s commercial aircraft and defence businesses, Stan Deal and Leanne Caret.
“From a market perspective there is a big opportunity in services in this region,” he says. “This will amount to about $225 billion over the next 10 years.”
He notes that Boeing has 1.7 million spare parts in its UAE hub, but that this is just one aspect of the services business. In her remarks, Caret said that major defence deals are conducted hand in hand with the services team.
“When we sell a product or a platform into our customer, there is a ton of life-cycle opportunity to continue to make sure that product delivers to the customer in the right way, and that it continues to serve our customer's customers,” says Colbert.
Colbert also touched on the importance of training, noting that this is essential for building talent and is fundamental to making sure Boeing products are used and supported in the correct manner.
“Training will continue to grow. The other important part about training is that it is also about partnership. As we partner in the region and locally, we hope to use training as a way to make capacity to organically grow the region’s aerospace industry. We believe that’s important."
