Avcorp Industries is in talks with Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier to win parts manufacture contracts on their respective 787, A350 and CSeries programmes, as the aerostructures maker pushes to expand its business.
The company's talks with Bombardier and its Shorts unit centre on parts of the yet-to-be-launched CSeries' wing, empennage and cockpit, and will probably lead to a decision "within 30 to 60 days", says Kevin Russell, Avcorp's vice-president of marketing and programmes.
The Delta, British Columbia-based company is negotiating for "smaller packages" of work on the Boeing 787, which may include flight-control subassemblies, Russell says. Avcorp is now also negotiating to extend its existing parts contracts with Boeing.
Discussions on parts manufacture for the unlaunched A350 are still about six months away from a decision, with Avcorp's most likely prospects being to supply parts to one of Airbus's subcontractors on the programme, Russell says. If the talks succeed, this would be Avcorp's first Airbus work package.
The Canadian company has ramped up production for centre-wing boxes and vertical stabilisers for the Cessna Citation CJ3 business jet to the full production rate of 60 shipsets a year, says Avcorp president Paul Kalil. The CJ3 contract has created 150 new jobs, bringing Avcorp's workforce to more than 500 for the first time since the company slashed its staff numbers after the 11 September attacks in the USA.
Together with the manufacture of 48 wing spar assemblies a year for Cessna's Citation Sovereign, the US aircraft manufacturer will take over from Bombardier as Avcorp's biggest customer by revenue in 2005. Cessna will account for about 42% of Avcorp's sales this year, up from 23% in 2004.
ANDRZEJ JEZIORSKI/VANCOUVER
Source: Flight International