LBAS breaks record for completion on a Bombardier aircraft | Press Release

See more information from the Business Air News Handbook

Press Release

Issued by Bombardier Business Aviation Services.

December 8, 2010

LBAS breaks record for completion on a Bombardier aircraft

Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services (LBAS) has performed a 96-month overhaul on a Challenger 604 aircraft belonging to Swiss Air Ambulance (REGA) in 31 days – a record for the company. REGA operates a fleet of three Challenger 604 jets.

As the biggest planned maintenance event on the Challenger 604 aircraft, the 96-month inspection is comparable to the D-check of a large commercial airliner. To meet REGA's requirements, LBAS set up a dedicated team for the inspection and managed to reduce the downtime dramatically. The aircraft was delivered to the customer free of defects after 31 calendar days in the LBAS hangar.

Ernst Kohler, CEO of REGA underlines: "We need a reliable and competent partner to perform maintenance on our aircraft. The time required to perform the work is a critical element for us, along with quality and budget. We selected LBAS and we are very pleased with the services that were promised and delivered."

Andreas Kaden, LBAS' Managing Director said: "We applied lean production methods in order to optimize the work processes and successfully paralleled tasks which were performed in sequence in the past. This experience makes us confident that in the future we will be able to regularly reduce the turnaround times for similar major airframe inspections."

REGA provides a highly professional bedside-to-bedside medical transport service, including detailed pre-flight medical consultation with the patient's attending physician. A 24/7, 365-day operation guarantees clients aero-medical evacuation on the highest level from almost every country in the world. Aircraft reliability is the key to success for this fleet of three medical transportation Challenger 604 aircraft, therefore maintenance downtimes must be reduced to a minimum.

LBAS has just finished working on REGA's second Challenger 604 aircraft, which returned to customer service on December 06. The overhaul of the third Challenger 604 business jet is scheduled for January 2011.