Dallas Airmotive Celebrates First Anniversary of Innovative F1RST SUPPORT Center

Las Vegas, Nevada…October 9, 2011…Since its unveiling one year ago, Dallas Airmotive’s F1RST SUPPORT global technical operations center has established a new standard for the way AOG service is managed. Operators stranded by engine issues can call F1RST SUPPORT and receive immediate attention from a technical specialist experienced in their engine and have a plan in place for dealing with the issue within minutes.

“A single call to our global support center is usually all it takes to resolve an issue on the telephone or if need be, schedule a mobile response team to the site and route all the appropriate tooling and support equipment needed,” commented Hugh McElroy, President of BBA Aviation Engine Repair and Overhaul Group (ERO). “In as little as 15 minutes we have a plan in place and the support team lined up and scheduled. We can do this because we utilize satellite based technologies to track and coordinate our field personnel, rental engines, LRUs, parts and related tooling and equipment. Our support center is staffed with technicians, engineers, schedulers, and asset managers who can quickly discuss an issue and formulate an action plan in a matter of minutes.

The F1RST SUPPORT Center was opened in September 2010 with the goal of utilizing the latest developments in GPS, satellite and communications technology to provide aircraft operators a superior level of service and response. “We are finding new and innovative ways to employ this technology,” continued McElroy. “It is helping us become more proactive in our planning for engine events, more efficient at tracking and scheduling our resources, and in pre-positioning assets globally for forecasted utilizations.”

“Plans are in place to add F1RST SUPPORT satellite locations in key service regions around the globe including Asia Pacific, Europe and South America,” said McElroy. “Additional satellite stations outside of North America will come on line as the service volumes increase in global regions.”

The F1RST SUPPRT Center is located at Dallas Airmotive’s facility in Grapevine, Texas (adjacent to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport). Among the capabilities of F1RST SUPPORT are:

• Real-time tracking of field service personnel, mobile vehicles, assets including rental engines, tooling, engine stands and containers.

• Capacities planning and overhaul shop availability are connected to the status of all active and scheduled field service work.

• Merging of data sources for airport activities, weather, regional events and individual flight tracking to optimize scheduling.

• Work-site integration with diagnostic equipment such as borescopes via live video streaming to enable consultation and analysis with engineering and quality assurance personnel via video conferencing.

• Instant access to technical information, airworthiness requirements and reference materials to quickly support on-site demands.

“We have more than 115 field service personnel around the globe,” stated McElroy. “This new command center gives us the ability to communicate with and assist any of our service personnel electronically at a moment’s notice no matter where they are in the world thereby providing ultra fast access to the full resources of our technical and engineering support personnel.”

BBA Aviation’s ERO group is OEM-authorized to service more than 80% of the engines in active service on the world’s turbine powered business aircraft. In addition to its field service representatives, the company operates 12 Regional Turbine Centers around the world supporting four major overhaul centers and twelve mobile service vehicles. A new Regional Turbine Center will open in Singapore in February of 2012.