By Allison Lampert
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Corporate planemakers announced plans on Monday to improve maintenance and parts accessibility for customers, amid a broader industry push for higher-margin aftermarket services.
The announcements come ahead of the world's largest business jet show, which kicks off on Tuesday featuring new large corporate planes that can fly farther, services like fast wifi at 40,000 feet and an industry push toward sustainable aviation fuels.
Canada's Bombardier also said its new Global 5500 aircraft will fly 200 nautical miles farther than planned, with a range of 5,900 nautical miles, a lure for customers eager to travel non-stop between far-flung cities.
The Montreal-based plane and train maker is adding a pair of line maintenance stations at two U.S. locations, which will introduce unscheduled services to customers and then build toward scheduled maintenance operations in the coming months.
Bombardier has focused on boosting sales of new products and maintenance packages to drive revenue growth for its aftermarket service business.
Textron (NYSE:TXT) announced a further expansion of its global parts distribution capabilities to make its parts more accessible to customers.
Textron Aviation, which produces Cessna Aircraft, said it grew warehouse square footage at three U.S. locations by nearly 50%, to over 8,000 square feet. The U.S. expansion follows Textron's plans to make parts more readily available to customers in Europe and Asia-Pacific earlier this year.
“Aftermarket has always been a key business driver to ensure we can support our customers,” said Kriya Shortt, senior vice president, global customer support for Textron Aviation.