Cessna Aircraft Co. has unveiled ServiceDirect, an option designed to provide a range of customer service options for Citation operators outside of the company’s service centers. This includes on-site maintenance operations and long-term logistics support, including Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) mechanic placement or contract support.
With on-site placement support, Cessna recruits and manages independent maintenance specialists, including A&P mechanics, to handle Citation support at the customer’s home airport to augment more involved scheduled service at one of the company’s Citation Service Centers or authorized service facilities.
This new option joins two others introduced in the past year: Mobile Service Units and the Air Response Team.
The Mobile Service Units (MSU) are full-size service trucks equipped with tooling to perform a variety of diagnostic and maintenance functions, including AOG support. These units can also perform medium-sized planned maintenance events as well as engine removal.
Through the first eight months of 2009, the four trucks currently in operation made 317 service calls, traveling more than 56,000 miles and performing 192 unscheduled and 125 scheduled maintenance jobs. The four MSUs are based in North Carolina, Texas, Arizona and Southern California.
The success of the MSU concept is prompting Cessna to plan to add regional trucks in the Midwest, Central Texas, the South, Great Lakes, Northern California, the Northeast/New England, Florida, the Rockies and Canada.
In just more than a year of operation of Cessna’s dedicated Air Response Team (ART), the aircraft has flown more than 160 support missions, including one acting as an organ transplant aircraft.
Cessna also is expanding the types of support available through the company’s Citation Service Network to include structural enhancements, such as winglet installation for the Citation X and glass cockpit upgrades for a variety of early edition Citations.
Cessna has joined with Wichita-based Winglet Technology LLC for installation of the Elliptical Winglet on the Citation X and delivered the first aircraft in July. The retrofit kit includes flight and operations manual supplements along with an updated version of CESSNAV for customers who have purchased that subscription service from Cessna and the replacement of the existing anti-collision and position light system with LED versions.
Cessna has already installed five winglet kits in the past few months and has at least 15 more scheduled, company officials report.
Earlier this summer, Cessna flew the first Citation upgraded with the popular IS&S-designed AdViz glass cockpit. Upgrading the cockpit with AdViz results in reduced weight, improved reliability and access to navigational aids such as XM Weather, navigation charts, remote radio tuning and enhanced video, company officials said.
In the past year, Cessna has added a Citation Service Center in Mesa, Ariz., and announced it will open a new company-owned center in Valencia, Spain, to supplement its center in Paris. Cessna has just opened a new parts distribution center in Europe at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport (AMS/EHAM) to support the Paris center and the several dozen authorized service centers.
For more information: Cessna.com
