JETS expands with new paint facility at UK headquarters.

Thursday 12th May 2011

Jet Engineering Technical Support (JETS), the Challenger, Hawker and Dornier aircraft maintenance centre based in Bournemouth, UK, is expanding its facility with the opening of a new dedicated paint bay. The introduction of the new paint area will enable JETS to offer a one-stop-shop capability to customers, who will be able to schedule aircraft painting work as part of the routine maintenance input.

The paint facility is the result of a significant investment by JETS in a newly-acquired hangar located at the company's Bournemouth base where it relocated to from Southampton in August 2010. The building increases JETS's hangar space by 50% from 2,250m2 to 3,370 m2 and underwent considerable refurbishment including the installation of new hangar doors, and heating and extraction equipment to make it fit for purpose. The size of the hangar means JETS can now accommodate larger aircraft such as the Falcon and Gulfstream fleet types. Major new Dornier 328 contract:

JETS paint activity is led by Paintshop Supervisor Tony Purvis , who has over 30 years' experience in aircraft painting. He will supervise a team of 5 specialists on a major new contract for seven Dornier 328 aircraft to be completed in the next 12 months for a North American customer. Purvis comments, "the new paint facility enables us to take on larger projects and ensures we can provide a full service range to our expanding client base. The 328 contract is an example of how the larger hangar, and improved offering can attract major deals."

Commenting on the new facility, JETS's CEO Derek Rankin said; 'Our customers can now make real savings through the one-stop-shop approach. We can remove the flying controls during the scheduled maintenance input, then prepare and paint them so that they are ready to be refitted as soon as the aircraft comes out of the paint shop. That means we can offer cost effective services for aircraft being painted as part of a maintenance package; it makes great sense to do both jobs at the same time.'

Under its EASA Part-145 approvals, JETS can carry out a broad range of maintenance work from scheduled base maintenance and defect rectification, through to minor and major modification embodiment to cabin interior refurbishment and of course full aircraft paint programmes. JETS is also the UK's only MRO type-approved for the Dornier 328. More recently JETS completed a major maintenance and refurbishment input on a Bombardier Challenger which also included overhauled landing gear and avionics upgrade, and the JETS trim shop supplied new seats and carpets.

JETS will be sharing a presence with sister company 328 Support Services GmbH at EBACE, Geneva at booth number 1851.

About JETS:

Jet Engineering Technical Support (JETS) was established in October 2004 to offer maintenance to business customers in Europe on the Hawker 125 jet series. Based at Bournemouth Airport in central southern England, the company is a sister company of 328 SSG which is based in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.JETS's capabilities now also include Bombardier Challenger and Dornier 328 Prop & Jet.

JETS's capabilities include base and line maintenance, painting (entire aircraft and parts), flexible hangarage, aircraft cleaning - interior and exterior-, pre and post flight preparation, parts supply, engineering support, technical and technical records support, aircraft surveys, avionics upgrades and interior refurbishment. www.jeteng.aero