Bombardier plans to open a new aircraft paint facility at London Biggin Hill airport in 2026 as part of the Montreal-based manufacturer’s ongoing strategy of expanding its global aftermarket services business.
The planned 4,740sq m (51,000sq ft) facility will have two aircraft bays and be next to Bombardier’s existing 23,200sq m Biggin Hill Service Centre.
“We’ve taken a very big step in the last several years to expand our [aftermarket] footprint worldwide,” says Bombardier vice-president of corporate development and aftermarket Zeshan Malik, noting the company has also recently opened new company-owned service centres or expanded its presence at existing centres in Berlin, Melbourne (Australia), Opa-locka (near Miami), London, and Singapore.
Further growth at Biggin Hill with the planned paint shop will enable Bombardier to capture more business from operators throughout the important European market, Malik says.
The paint shop will be housed in a newly constructed facility and is expected to open in the second half of next year. It will be capable of painting Bombardier’s line-up of business jets, including Challengers, Globals and Learjets.
Owners typically have their jets painted during scheduled heavy maintenance, which is why having a paint facility beside the Biggin Hill service centre site makes so much sense, says Malik.
Bombardier in 2017 opened its initial Biggin Hill facility and in 2022 relocated to its current and much-larger site, which can accommodate up to 14 large-cabin Global business jets. “We’ve had a very substantial evolution in London over the last few years,” Malik says.
That growth reflects Bombardier’s broader push, several years in the making, to expand its aftermarket division to become a $2 billion-annual-revenue business by this year. The company appears on track to hit that goal, generating $1.5 billion in service revenue during the first three quarters of 2025. Bombardier is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter financial results on 6 February.
Historically, the “vast majority” of Bombardier’s aftermarket business had been in the USA. But much of its recent expansion has been overseas, reflecting the global nature of Bombardier’s customer base, says Malik. “It’s important to be closer to our customers.”
Bombardier now operates nine company-owned service centres globally and plans to open another next year in Abu Dhabi. It also jointly owns a service centre in the Chinese city of Tianjin and operates a separate nine line-maintenance station. The company employs 1,800 technicians, supporting a fleet of about 5,100 Bombardier aircraft.
“I don’t think our story is complete from an expansion perspective,” says Malik.