By Lisa Gordon | May 16, 2013 Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 13 seconds.
Flying Colours Corp. is going back to its roots. The Peterborough, Ont.-based global aviation services company was recently named as a Beechcraft authorized service centre (ASC) for the entire King Air, Baron and Bonanza product lines. The appointment makes Flying Colours the second factory-authorized ASC in Canada; the first being Provincial Airlines of St. John’s, N.L.
Flying Colours has a long history of providing maintenance services to the Beechcraft line. In the late ˜70s, its Rapid Aircraft Repair division made a name for itself doing Beech 99 engine upgrades and super spar conversions.
We’ve worked on turboprops for a long time, and that’s where our roots are, Sean Gillespie, Flying Colours’ executive vice president, sales and marketing, told Canadian Skies. The jet product is still very much at the forefront of our operations, but I like to look at it as two different streams. The King Air is obviously the focus on the turboprop side; there are lots of them here.
In fact, there are 275 King Airs currently operating in Canada, according to JETNET, which specializes in business and commercial aircraft statistics.
Gillespie said the Beechcraft ASC designation has been in the works for the past 18 months or so, but the announcement was delayed until after the manufacturer emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process earlier this year.
There was interest on both sides to get another ASC in Canada, said Gillespie. We will focus on King Air maintenance, and will look after the Bonanza and Baron, too. We already maintain some King Airs here today; we also do refurbishments and exterior paint, and avionics modifications as well.
The Beechcraft ASC appointment is but one of three strategic turboprop-related partnerships for Flying Colours. In late 2011, the company teamed with Blackhawk Modifications Inc. to complete authorized turboprop maintenance, avionics and interior modifications that improve cost effectiveness and aircraft performance.
Canadian Skies has also learned that there is one more alliance that has yet to be announced: We just completed an agreement to be a Raisbeck Engineering sales and installation facility, said Gillespie.
Raisbeck designs systems that improve the performance, comfort, safety, and operational flexibility of the Beechcraft King Air, the Bombardier Learjet and the de Havilland Canada Twin Otter.
Those are the three main partnerships we focused on getting: Blackhawk, Raisbeck, and the Beech ASC. Now, our sales team can go out and sell all of these products, and it can all be done under one roof, said Gillespie. We’re making investments in strategic alliances, not just on the turboprop side, but on the jet side as well. In October 2012, Bombardier named Flying Colours and its U.S. subsidiary, JetCorp Technical Services, as authorized service facilities for Learjet and Challenger business jets.
Gillespie said that about 25 per cent of Flying Colours’ business is turboprop-related, with the company employing about 10 dedicated technicians for that stream. We do have a nice little niche in the King Air business, and we’re still pushing (to develop it), he said.
Overall, business at Flying Colours is booming, with the company set to break ground in June on a 20,000-square-foot addition to its aircraft conversion facility. It’s the first phase of a three-part expansion that will give the rapidly-growing company more space to perform a growing list of custom aircraft completions and conversions.
Gillespie also provided an update on Flying Colours’ plans to open a base in China, in recognition of that region’s growing need for business jet completions. The Chinese base is still in discussions and we’re moving in the right direction, he said. We have two potential partners we are negotiating with, and we have looked at two facilities, one outside mainland China and one inside. Although I would like it to be done now, you have to do it right, and you don’t get a second chance. We have to be sure we have the right partner. Hopefully, we will be up and running in China in 2014.
Earlier this month, the company also announced it had achieved its AS9100 certificate for quality and safety management in the aerospace industry, reflecting its successful implementation of Lean manufacturing principles.
