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On the Record With
STEVE GRIMES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HARRODS AVIATION
A ribbon-cutting ceremony here on Wednesday will formalize the joint co-operation venture between Harrods Aviation (Booth 1807) and Lufthansa Technik AG (Booth 1822) signed at EBACE earlier this year. The two companies are now offering full maintenance, modification and engineering support to all BBJ customers when operating into the UK.
A Lufthansa Technik support team will be based at Harrods Engineering's facility at London-Luton until Harrods' own engineers are fully trained to take-over in 2005. Harrods Engineering staff will start Boeing BBJ training during this last quarter of 2004.
"Boeing BBJ operators will begin to see the benefits of this new initiative immediately," Harrods Aviation managing director Steve Grimes told ShowNews. "When positioning aircraft through Harrods Aviation FBOs at either Luton or Stansted, time on the ground need not be wasted, Boeing warranty and interior and technical defects can be rectified at these facilities. This service provision will include certification privileges on aircraft for all major registrations and countries of origin, and underpins the two companies joint determination to provide a turnkey services."
Harrods already operates a Bombardier Service Center at Luton, and Grimes said that the BBJ initiative has come from "customer pressure".
Aircraft interior completions is the next step, and will start in 2005. "We have the interior completions capability to handle up to Global Express (size) through MacCarthy Interiors in the UK, and because of our new tie-up with Sikorsky we will offer full completions on 'green' helicopters in the future, also with MacCarthy," said Grimes. Larger aircraft interior work will go to Lufthansa Technik in Germany.
To accommodate the new business, Harrods is spending $12.6 million on a new 2,590-square-meter hangar at Luton and an extra adjoining 11,270 square meters of ramp space. This hangar is designed specifically for Global Express- and Gulfstream-sized aircraft and will free up Harrods' other hangar (capable of housing aircraft up to Boeing 757) for BBJ maintenance and hangarage. The ramp will be ready by the end of November and the new hangar operational by early 2005.
London-Luton is running neck-and-neck with TAG Farnborough as the busiest UK corporate airport. Harrods' Luton FBO should handle 7,000 aircraft movements this year, while across the ramp Signature is forecasting around 10,000.
Grimes believes that Harrods' newly announced Embraer sales and distributorship for the UK and Ireland should lead to more aircraft being based at Luton. "We are looking for other manufactures to represent, and extending our existing distributorships Europe-wide," he said.
More detail has emerged of Harrods' plan to open an FBO at Embraer's current European parts depot at Paris-Le Bourget. Grimes says that, "We'll probably attach the FBO to this building to start, but longer term we'll be looking for more space. We are not going to rush into opening more FBOs unless all the factors are right and we can maintain Harrods' very high standard," said Grimes.
On the sale of London's Battersea Heliport facility last year, Grimes says, "We received a very attractive offer to dispose of Battersea, so we did—it was good business."
Asked which of Harrods Aviation's current operations is most successful Grimes said, " That would be our FBO and engine shop businesses. But in the future I see our aircraft sales as being a major star."
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