Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems (Booth C8308) recently opened a 55,000-sq-ft service facility exclusively for large-cabin aircraft, particularly Bombardier Globals and Gulfstreams at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon, Georgia. “We are pleased to have additional and dedicated space for our large-cabin customers and be less dependent on our Greenville [South Carolina] facility for meeting customer requirements in the southeastern U.S.,” said Stevens Aerospace CFO Neal McGrail.
About 30 percent of the company’s work involves military versions of general aviation airframes. The company also provides emergency services for AOGs and on-site mobile technical services, and these mobile service teams have been expanding. A new team will be named following the NBAA convention; the choice of cities is still under internal review.
The new Macon site opens up a huge new workspace allowing Stevens to work concurrently on five large-cabin aircraft, opening new opportunities to draw national and global large-cabin customers. While the new facility heightens Stevens Aviation’s profile this week at NBAA 2019, company director of sales Phil Stearns explained that, because the company’s nexus is on the East Coast, Macon is too far to fly for owners of smaller aircraft based in the western U.S.
However, he added, owners of large-cabin business jets are not range limited and can seek service anywhere—within reason, of course. Consequently, because of the new Macon facility, Stevens expects increased customer attention at NBAA-BACE from large-cabin aircraft operators.
Just as important, Stearns said the new facility allows the company to build and develop the type of relationship it finds works best for customers, where customer representatives stay with the aircraft during the maintenance event and visit the shop floor regularly. “We want to work deeply with customers, encouraging them to be with us and the airplane full-time," said Stearns.
“A lot of shops, whether OEM or non-OEM, do not allow customers on the shop floor. That is one thing that makes us significantly different," he added. "We involve customers to the degree they want to be involved, which makes things move along much smoother and allows them to see every part of what happens during an event.”
Stevens had been on the lookout for a larger facility because it was running out of room at its other locations, which also includes facilities in Dayton, Ohio, and Nashville, Tennessee. The company did service large-cabin aircraft at Donaldson Center Airport in Greenville, but Stearns said that “when a GV rolled into the hangar it pushed out all the smaller planes.”
The former Bombardier facility at Macon closed at the end of 2017 and had been vacant for at least a year. Working with local airport authorities, Stevens got it ready in January and held an official grand opening in March.
Another important factor in developing the Macon center was building a new team of technicians. Operations manager Rick Screen, whose career includes 17 years with Gulfstream, was tasked with getting the crew together. He pored through his Rolodex and contacted mechanics he had worked with in the past, inviting them to join the new Stevens team. “Many of us worked together at Gulfstream,” Screen said. “Just about everyone who signed on has at least 18 to 20 years of experience on large-cabin aircraft. This is a small group of experienced people who are very customer focused.”
Stearns added to this notion of a quality relationship. “There are differences in how you maintain a new plane versus a 25-year-old airplane," he said. "The expertise at the Macon service center can provide a lot of options for maintaining older aircraft, while meeting all safety and legal requirements but avoiding a singular focus based on just buying expensive new parts. That’s what these [technicians] are very good at.”
