Fokker Aircraft Services (E345) may be a minnow in the airliner-derived business jet interiors market, compared with European rivals Jet Aviation and Lufthansa Technik. But the Dutch maintenance, repair and overhaul house is building a reputation for Airbus completions as it prepares to deliver its fourth A320 family jet next year.
The A320 - a former airliner - follows two green completions: an A319 delivered in 2008 and an A318 earlier this year. Fokker Aircraft Services - part of the Fokker Technologies aerostructures and components group - has also handled a Bombardier CRJ700 completion in 2008.
Stephen Hands, vice-president marketing and sales, is refusing to get carried away. "I don't want to do seven completions a year. We went into this business with a steady, steady attitude aiming to create a good supply chain," he says. "We're out there making good customised solutions for the customer and we're not overcommitting."
He is, however, keen to break into the Boeing narrowbody market. "We would like to do a BBJ and we have a slot available next year," he says.
The company is at the show promoting its parent group's new slogan: "Aircrafting." Hands explains: "It's all about saying that we know aircraft. We have designed aircraft. We know what we are doing."
Former aircraft manufacturer Fokker was resurrected as Stork Aerospace by Dutch industrial group Stork after collapsing into bankruptcy in the 1990s. The Fokker brand was reintroduced for the aerospace business earlier this year.
Source: Flight Daily News
