Peterborough, Canada | October 14, 2018– On the eve of this year’s NBAA Flying Colours – booth 1735 – the North American maintenance, repair, overhaul and completions business has announced it is adding more than 140,000 square feet to its North American footprint as it continues its ambitious expansion and embarks on its largest infrastructure growth to date.

Plans are currently being finalized for the groundbreaking of a brand-new hangar by the end of fall 2018 at the Peterborough, ON. facility. The additional hangar, the fourth at Flying Colours Peterborough headquarters, is needed to provide additional capacity for completions, refurbishment and heavy maintenance work scopes on large jet airframes.

The purpose-built hangar will be divided into three distinct zones. A new 40,000-square-feet, climate controlled, state-of-the-art paint shop will be added, supplementing the two existing dedicated paint shops. Large enough to accommodate business jets up to Global 7500, Boeing Business Jet or Airbus A220 (formerly known as the Bombardier C Series) size airframes it will fulfill the higher volume of paint jobs passing through the facility. A second area of 40,000 square feet has been designed to enable heavy maintenance and/or interior work on up to four Global 6000-size aircraft to take place simultaneously. Two higher levels will be used for new customer offices, a second dedicated design-center at the facility, storage and general office space. The total office space will cover more than 20,000 square feet bringing the hangar footprint to more than 100,000 square feet in total when it opens in mid-2019.

At the company’s Chesterfield, St. Louis facility a fifth hangar will be inaugurated on

1 December. The 30,000-square-feet area will be large enough to handle up to three parallel large-jet maintenance, avionics upgrades and interior projects at once including Bombardier Global and larger Gulfstream models. The additional capacity dove tails with the expanded interiors and cabinetry workshop that opened in January of this year. Together the shops will support the multiple aircraft projects being undertaken at the KSUS facility. A further 18,000 square feet of customer lounges, office space, and storage area will form the second floor of the facility.

The next expansion phase represents Flying Colours’ largest investment to date and has been driven by the long-term need for increased capacity as customer demand reflects renewed growth in the business aviation sector. The latest aircraft models require high-quality interior monuments for completions, an active pre-owned market has driven a rise in refurbishment demand, and the frequency of heavy maintenance checks has grown as more models become due. An evolving connectivity segment has also stimulated the need for more avionics upgrades across numerous platforms. This has also been augmented by the upcoming ADS-B Out mandate in the North Americas.

When the buildings are complete more than 100 team members will join the family owned business across the two sites. The search for maintenance, interiors and paint expertise will lead the recruitment drive.

“We were literally running out of space to deliver all the services that our clients were requesting, so took the decision to increase our footprint significantly at both of our North American sites,” says Sean Gillespie, Executive VP, Flying Colours Corp. “The business aviation sector is more buoyant than it has been for some time and with our Bombardier ASF status, our breadth of experience working on numerous different aircraft types, and the fact that we can offer a multitude of skills under one roof, so reducing aircraft downtime, is making us very attractive to a wider range of customers.”

Newport Beach, CA | October 26, 2016– FTS Technologies Inc. today announce that their revolutionary Cabin Wireless Solution has been selected by an undisclosed North American airline for installation on their fleet of B737’s. Launching in Q1 of 2017, passengers on both charter and commercial flights will enjoy FTS’ newest and premium entertainment option.

“We are delighted to be working with FTS to introduce Cabin Wireless Solution on our B737 fleet,” said the airline executive. “We are committed to delivering superior customer service and exceeding passenger satisfaction so adding FTS next generation IFE will allow us to achieve that standard.”
FTS Cabin Wireless Solution is completely designed and manufactured in-house within the organization. The system features a high performance 2-MCU embedded file server, 2 wireless access points that support the latest 802.11ac standard and a revolutionary 3G/4G cellular modem that takes up to 4 sim cards. Passengers can connect to the onboard wireless network through their own mobile devices and enjoy streaming HD-quality video and audio entertainment, play single/multiplayer games, read latest news, view 2D/3D flight progress maps and indulge in shopping.

“We are very excited to secure our first launch airline customer in the Americas region and we look forward to partner them to immerse their passengers into a whole new level of service and onboard entertainment,” said Mr. Duan Shiping, President and CEO of FTS. “We are working closely with the airline and FAA to apply for STC (Supplemental Type Certification) approval. With the expected issue of STC in early 2017, that will start opening up new opportunities worldwide and establish ourselves as a respectable global player.”

• Trans States Airlines has launched the navigation app from Lufthansa Systems

Raunheim, Germany | August 16, 2016– Trans States Airlines successfully implemented Lido/mPilot this spring. Thus, the regional carrier is among the first in North America to deploy the mobile navigation solution from Lufthansa Systems.

“Lido/mPilot supports the pilots at Trans States Airlines with practical features before, during and after a flight,” said Michael Schmidtborn, Vice President Sales & Services North America at Lufthansa Systems. “The navigation app has been running very reliably since the start and our pilots are excited about the flexibility and the functionalities of the mobile solution,” said Keith Stamper, Director Flight Operation at Trans States Airlines.

Around 70 airlines have already opted for the mobile Lido/mPilot navigation solution since the app was launched in early 2015. The modular app offers features such as airport maps, a dynamically generated enroute chart, and a document management and distribution system that enables pilots to access documents and messages both at home and on the move. A status overview with intuitive icons guarantees a clear flow of information. Pilots receive important updates via push notifications.

Trans States Airlines, based in Bridgeton, Missouri, is a regional US airline. With a fleet of 50 aircraft, Trans States Airlines operates domestic American feeder flights for Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United.

Amsterdam, Netherlands | May 31, 2016– Global civil aircraft industry is witnessing a geographic transition from relatively slowing matured markets like North America and Europe towards the Asia Pacific, dominated by China. Increasing traffic in the developing geographies is driving demand for commercial aircrafts. The number of airplanes in service is expected to more than double over 2014-2034, with single aisle aircrafts witnessing the maximum growth.

The growth in the commercial aircraft market will underpin the demand for components used in these airplanes. Major aircraft component systems like flight control systems (FCS), drive shafts, cockpit display system (CDS) and other airframe components are all expected to witness healthy growth over near to medium term.

According to a recent market research report published by Technavio, the global commercial aircraft FCS market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.7% during the period 2016-2020. The report titled “Global Commercial Aircraft Flight Control Systems Market 2016-2020”, identifies introduction of fly-by-wire systems, increased adaptation of advanced actuators and shift towards next-generation FCS to be the dominant trends in the commercial aircraft FCS market over the next five years.

The report states that the growth in the FCS market would primarily be driven by growing demand for aircraft, increased use of thrust management systems and rising developments in FCS technology. However, the analysts also caution that issues related to electromechanical actuators (EMAs), stringent regulatory norms and high technology cost to dampen the growth prospect to certain degree.

The report studies the global civil aircraft FCS market across three primary geographies: Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. The report also provides a detailed analysis of the market by types of FCS used: hydro-mechanical, fly-by-wire and mechanical.

While analysing the competitive landscape of the market, the report provides detailed insights into key vendors operating in the space such as BAE Systems, Honeywell International, MOOG, Rockwell Collins, Sagem, UTC Aerospace Systems, Liebherr-Aerospace, Nabtesco, Parker Aerospace, and West Star Aviation. The insights on the vendors include information such as company and financial overview, business strategies and recent developments.