Bombardier quadruples Singapore facility size as Apac business jet activity expected to surpass pre-pandemic

BOMBARDIER expects business jet activities in Asia Pacific to exceed pre-pandemic, and is looking at hiring about 100 in Singapore after an US$85 million expansion for its service centre here.

Chief executive Eric Martel, who spoke to the media on Thursday (Jun 30) before the opening ceremony for the expanded facility, said he has observed the level of business jet activities in Asia Pacific is now 8 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Activities in North America and Europe, by contrast, have exceeded pre-pandemic levels and are about 20 per cent more. The higher level of activities is because these regions reopened their borders earlier than Asia Pacific amid pent-up travel demand.

He said demand for business aviation in general is higher than commercial aviation because there is still a lack of routes and frequencies for commercial flights.

Also, only a minority of the well-heeled flew on private jets before the pandemic. Now, more of those who could afford and want to fly would use this private transport mode as commercial flights are few and far between.

"When you have tried private aviation, it's very difficult to go back to commercial aircraft after that. So people have tried, enjoyed it, and are probably going to stick with private aviation," said Martel.

He added that not everyone who could afford would buy his own jet as they can choose to charter. And charter operation here could evolve even more.

“I think there’s room for charter operations to be more present… Someone buys an airplane but they don’t fly all the hours that an airplane can fly, so they can charter a plane even more. So I think that this is a portion that we’ll probably see evolving in the region here. And the region has matured quite a bit, especially with infrastructure like this one here, parts availability and much less dependence than it used to be from mainly America,” said Martel.

The Canadian business jet maker pumped in US$85 million to expand its Singapore Service Centre at Seletar Aerospace Park - its largest maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Asia Pacific.

Bombardier, which said that it did not retrench any workers across all its sites during the pandemic, plans to add about 50 this year to its some 200 staff at the facility here and another 50 next year. These will mainly be engineers, planners and project managers.

The expanded facility, now spanning 27,000 square metres or 4-fold of the previous footprint of 6,500 square metres, is able to take in 30 jets at any one time - double the previous capacity. And it is expected to support more than 2,000 business jet visits annually.

Bombardier has a worldwide fleet of approximately 5,000 aircraft in service with multinational corporations, charter and fractional ownership providers, governments, and private individuals.

Martel added that more unplanned work is taking place at the Singapore facility, driven by the traffic to the Republic.

The expanded Singapore facility offers a complete suite of maintenance and modification capabilities with full-service interior finishing capacity, including a brand-new paint facility and a parts depot that operates round the clock for Learjet, Challenger and Global aircraft.

Previously, paint jobs had to be carried out in North America.

The Singapore facility will also accommodate Bombardier’s Global 8000 business jet when it enters into service in 2025.

The expansion adds “sought-after” new heavy structural and composite repair capabilities as well as an integrated parts depot that will serve the site and the region, increasing more than US$15 million in parts inventory.

Bombardier now also offers Global aircraft customers for lease BR710 engines from Rolls-Royce stored on site, significantly reducing downtime and costs.

The Singapore facility has also received its first batch of sustainable aviation fuel from Shell Aviation, offering business aviation operators an environmentally-friendly fuel option at Seletar Airport.