Bombardier has unveiled plans to extend its Dubai parts depot to cover commercial aircraft.
The manufacturer announced at the show yesterday that the business jet parts depot it opened in Dubai in 2005 will be equipped over the next few months with CRJ and Dash 8 Q series parts.
Bombardier vice-president commercial operations Ron Williams says the depot will focus on critical aircraft on ground parts and routine spares needed for daily operations, resulting in improved support for airlines in the region.
He says Middle Eastern CRJ and Dash 8 operators now have to rely on Bombardier's Frankfurt depot for spare parts.
Williams says Bombardier is also planning to improve support in the region by opening a new field office in India. Customers in the Middle East and India are now serviced by Bombardier's Munich field office.
Bombardier vice-president commercial aircraft programmes Ben Boehm says the manufacturer is "investigating" an Indian city location for the field office and to determine how many employees it should hire. He says Indian operators are being consulted as part of this process.
Boehm says Bombardier now has field representatives throughout the Middle East, North Africa and India region. But representatives have no base per se and are scattered across the region at customer hubs. Bombardier now has 170 commercial aircraft in service or on order in the Middle East and North Africa and India. This figure is projected to grow rapidly over the next 20 years.
Bombardier's Dubai spare parts depot, operated in partnership with the ExecuJet Aviation Group, is housed in a 260m2 (2,800ft2) facility at Dubai International airport. Williams says the facility, which now houses parts for Bombardier's Learjet, Challenger and Global business jet lines, has plenty of unused capacity.
Therefore the building will not have to be physically expanded to accommodate CRJ, Dash 8 Q Series and, eventually, CSeries parts.
Source: Flight Daily News