BAE Systems wins civil aircraft warehouse services contract

BAE Systems Regional Aircraft has won a three-year contract from Saab Aerotech for warehousing services covering aircraft spares for the Saab 340 and Saab 2000 regional turboprop airliners.

This competitively-won contract is valued at £1.5 million over the three years and will be carried out by Regional Aircraft staff at its Spares Logistics Centre at Weybridge in Surrey.

Saab’s Europe-based spares stock for both aircraft types is in the process of being transferred to Weybridge from the previous spares service provider, Honeywell/Cat Logistics at Hemel Hempstead, Herts. There are approximately 6,500 line items, covering some one million parts to be moved. These spares will be housed in a designated pallet racking aisle, protected by a water sprinkler system, offering 1,000 square metres of storage.

Saab currently supports some 500 Saab 340 and Saab 2000 airliners that are in service with some 70 customers in 30 countries worldwide.

Announcing the contract today, Sean McGovern, Operations Director for BAE Systems Regional Aircraft said: “This important contract from Saab Aerotech is further evidence that our stock rationalisation programme at Weybridge, which has enabled us to free up space to offer to third parties, is now bearing fruit. This contract comes on top of the deal we announced in January with Ansett Spares and Services and confirms Regional Aircraft as a major provider of spares logistics services to the industry.

“We are very flexible in our approach to securing third party aerospace business. In the case of Ansett we negotiated for them to manage their own spares stock using their own personnel. By contrast, with Saab, we will run the entire operation using our own staff who will be dedicated to the Saab operation – a service that is well within our core capabilities”.

Mr Lars Brännström, Vice President and Head of the Aircraft Services Division for Saab Aerotech added: “We are delighted to sign this contract with BAE Systems Regional Aircraft. A creditable provider of warehousing services for the European region is vital to our global logistics support capability and to the continued long-term support of our Saab 340 and 2000 customer base. BAE Systems has long experience in the aviation business and this was a key factor in our choice of supplier”.

Saab Aerotech is Sweden’s leading supplier of integrated support solutions. With capabilities and competence spanning the defence, civil security and commercial aviation sectors, Saab Aerotech provides a broad range of services and products for cost effective life-cycle support of customer systems and platforms. Saab Aerotech is a business unit of the Saab Group.