Canada-based Flying Colours, a specialist in the completion and refurbishment of Bombardier aircraft, is highlighting the company’s ability to service clients in Europe, underscored by recent facility expansion at home and successes in Asia. “We’re getting more inquiries from Europe for heavy refurbishment and maintenance,” said Eric Gillespie, executive v-p of sales and marketing.

Flying Colours (Booth 1646) recently completed the first of a three-phase, 65,000-sq-ft expansion at its Peterborough, Ontario headquarters, opening a $3.5-million, 20,000-sq-ft hangar expansion in March and upgrading its paint facility with a $750,000 investment in April. Halfway around the world, Flying Colours recently partnered with Bombardier to provide interior support and refurbishment at the new Bombardier service center in Singapore, and the company is in the process of setting up and staffing the facility. Meanwhile, under its Preferred Completion Center agreement with Bombardier, Flying Colours has delivered numerous Challenger 850 completions around the globe over the past three years and is currently performing green Challenger completions for several Asia-based clients.

The company’s interior work is divided about 50-50 between green completions and refurbishments, Gillespie said, pointing to work on a pre-owned Challenger 850 for a client in Hong Kong as an example of the latter. The refurb features a carbon-fiber interior. “This is the first time we’ve worked so extensively with carbon-fiber on the interior of an aircraft,” said Gillespie. “The client chose the material for purely aesthetic reasons, and where you would normally only use wood veneer, for example the tables, galleys, bulkheads, hand rails, lavatory vanities and toilet enclosures, we’ve used carbon fiber.”

The cabin is equipped with an inflight entertainment system featuring 22-inch widescreen displays and the Rockwell Collins Airshow 4000 system, with software modified for the region. Inmarsat SwiftBroadband connectivity supports inflight phone and wireless Internet service. Gillespie says Asian clients have particularly high expectations when it comes to inflight connectivity and entertainment systems, demands the company believes at least some European operators share, and Flying Colours is eager to explain to show attendees here in Geneva how it can satisfy them. “We want all operators, aircraft brokers and representatives of clients that want a competitive quote on refurbishment, done right, to come and visit us here at EBACE,” said Gillespie.