Charles Alcock is managing editor of the AIN Media Group, having rejoined the company in 2019. He has been an aviation journalist since 1986, and previously worked for AIN from 1990 to 2017, most recently as editor-in-chief. His main focus is on covering new aviation technology and business models, as well as international news.
Having been raised in the London area, Alcock studied at the University of Manchester in the UK and earned an honors degree in Politics and Modern History. He speaks English and French, and some German.

Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

Rolls-Royce is continuing to make significant investments to keep enhancing its CorporateCare support programs for its family of business aircraft engines. And these investments are reaping benefits for aircraft operators because, as of mid May, the three-month average rate for averted missed trips had reached 99.3 percent, meaning that in hardly any cases at all are its engines the reason that a flight has to be canceled or postponed. At the same time, the average aircraft-on-ground (AOG) incident involving a Rolls-Royce engine had fallen to just 17.9 hours—well below the 24 hour upper limit.


“We have built a very sustainable support infrastructure, and the amount of detail we now have about the availability of parts is impressive,” Rolls-Royce sales and marketing vice president Stephen Friedrich told AIN. “With the greatly improved data we now get from the engine health monitoring systems, we are getting close to avoiding AOGs altogether. Because the data we have and how we can use it is still improving, we are able to be proactive, rather than reactive.”


CorporateCare currently provides support for the following Rolls-Royce turbofans: BR725 (Gulfstream G650); BR710 (GV/GV-SP, plus G550; and Bombardier Global Express and Global 5000 and 6000); Tay (GIV/GIV-SP, plus G350 and G450); and AE3007 (Embraer Legacy 600 and 650, plus Cessna Citation X). For some aircraft types, Rolls-Royce says that as many as 95 percent of jets in operation are covered by the program and, across the board, at least 70 percent of Rolls-powered aircraft are now included.


The UK-based engine maker is now stepping up efforts to introduce technology from its Advance 2 that it says will make its turbofans even more reliable. Much of this effort is being conducted at Rolls-Royce’s Dahlewitz facility near the German capital Berlin, where it has its main operational service desk for product support.


Over the past 12 months, Rolls-Royce has further expanded its network of authorized service centers worldwide. The most recent additions, announced in November 2016, took the total number of facilities above 70, including the appointment of Duncan Aviation (with facilities in Lincoln, Nebraska, Battle Creek, Michigan and Provo, Utah), Embraer Executive Jets in Paris and ExecuJet Aviation Services China in Tianjin.


The expansion is in response to growing numbers of business aircraft operators signing up for the CorporateCare fixed-cost engine maintenance management program. More than 100 additional aircraft have joined the program this year, taking the total above 2,000. Since 2005, the number of aircraft supported has almost quadrupled.


&nbsp;“This is designed to be a truly comprehensive program that transfers risk [away from the operator],” Friedrich explained. “We want to be sure that your support program covers factors such as corrosion. This enhances asset value and liquidity, covering both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance visits, loaner engines and spares on wing during line maintenance.”


For all turbofans apart from the AE3007 family, Rolls-Royce now has the ability to automatically download data from engines. This has significantly enhanced the manufacturer’s ability to trend their performance through engine health monitoring, with data compared to fleet averages and specific operating parameters. “We contact operators if trending flags up problems,” Friedrich explained. “We don’t want to have engines that have to be removed unexpectedly from the wing; we want to do it conveniently for the operator.”


Leading the ongoing product support improvements for business aircraft operators is Rolls-Royce’s customer services vice president Andy Robinson. “Andy and his team have done a fantastic job at continually building our internal support infrastructure and the network of authorized service centers,” Friedrich concluded.


Rolls-Royce (Booth B09) achieved top ranking for AOG responsiveness in the latest AIN engine product support survey published in October 2016. Part of the reason for improved AOG performance is the manufacturer’s investment in parts distribution centers in Dubai, Frankfurt and Singapore.

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