The owner’s benefit of ownership starts with a well-designed and easily maintainable product

One of the main themes running through Cessna Aircraft Co’s ethos for selling its business jets throughout the world has been the importance of service to our customers. In fact, over the last few years, respected surveys have consistently rated Cessna either Number 1 or 2 in customer service along with Gulfstream Aerospace. In many respects, the owner’s benefit of ownership starts with a well-designed and easily maintainable product. If at inception the engineers make the right choice for simple yet effective systems with reliability and easy maintainability in mind, then cost of operation will be low and, consequently, cost of ownership and maintainability will also be low even as reliability soars. As our product line has rapidly evolved in the last decade, this importance of design-at-inception has been a strong influencer on us.

The Citation Mustang is the latest product to benefit from that thinking. We feel this reflects strongly in Cessna’s reputation in the market for designing, testing and certifying aircraft that are the cheapest to own and the easiest to operate whilst delivering strong value to the customer in terms of cabin size, field performance and range at a competitive price.

Unmatched Service Network
Cessna initially built a large service network in the US with some nine factory-owned service stations, giving us a coverage in the continental US that is unmatched by any of our competitors. This philosophy subsequently spread to outside the US, including Paris Le Bourget, with plans well underway to add a further Cessna-owned facility in Valencia, Spain. In addition Cessna has a further 12 authorised facilities in Europe (six alone in Germany) to support a 1,000-plus Citation fleet in the European Union. Authorised facilities are maintained in the Middle East, South Africa, India, Singapore and Australia as well as several countries in Latin America, with Brazil (TAM) offering the largest service centre outside the US, although this will soon be matched by a 100,000 square foot service centre in Bremen, Germany (Atlas Air Service). Wherever we establish a market presence, a service centre is not far away.

All Cessna’s facilities, be they Cessna owned or authorised, have to meet a certain standard of personnel, training, facilities and spare parts. In general, every $1 invested in an aircraft is worthwhile, certainly when it comes to the time of resale a Cessna or Cessna approved service history certainly adds to the resale value.

MSU, Go Teams & ART
Once the owner has taken delivery of the new aircraft, Cessna can offer a significant number of power by the hour programmes that cover everything, from the engines, avionics and systems parts, consumables (brakes and tires), APU and even the maintenance labour expended on the aircraft. In Cessna’s vernacular these are PowerAdvantage, ProParts, AuxAdvantage and Protech, respectively. In that way our owners can accurately budget costs throughout the life of the aircraft. In the case of ProParts, we offer a percentage cash back facility at the end of the contract period (an efficiency bonus) if spare parts cost less over the 5 year period than actually paid in. This is one small way in which we add to the ownership experience.

In May 2007 Cessna launched a new concept unique to the main OEMs in business aviation. In the US, we have now equipped several Mobile Service Units (MSUs) that will travel to a customer’s location to carry out service in situ. The MSU carries everything you would expect to see in a permanent facility—enough for small and medium scheduled maintenance. In addition, Cessna has its Go teams to support AOG issues, as well as (in the US) an Air Response Team (ART) with a dedicated aircraft to fly spare parts and/or maintenance technicians for urgent requirements. The MSU, Go teams and ART are all part of a refinement of our service capabilities.

For our international customers, in addition to the service centre network and related Field Service Engineers, Cessna is also looking at ways to improve distribution of spare parts. Recently it was decided to add a facility (to be shared with Bell helicopter) in Schipol Airport to promote rapid deployment of spare parts in the EU. A similar option is being considered for Asia as our fleet continues to grow. In addition we are also looking at establishing a Satellite Inventory System (a system already in place in the US) with our European service partners to improve parts readiness and interchange between the various facilities. In addition it is probable that Europe will also see the roll out of MSUs over time.