Emmen, Switzerland, 04 September 2017. RUAG Aviation fulfilled the phase four and phase six heavy maintenance check on a Dornier 328 within the highly competitive turnaround time (TAT) of just four weeks. The vast Dornier 328 experience accumulated by RUAG at its Bern-Belp location was a deciding factor for ExecuJet South Africa which awarded the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) contract on behalf of its customer, the Botswana Defence Force. The inspection event was optimised to include landing gear refurbishment at the RUAG in-house component shop in Interlaken.

“RUAG continues to prove its reputation for overwhelming experience in all aspects of Dornier 328 MRO, as well as for reliable scheduling conditions,” explains Shane Hayward, General Manager Commercial, ExecuJet South Africa.

“The guaranteed, four-week TAT was a crucial aspect of this heavy maintenance check – one we knew we could entrust to RUAG,” Shane Hayward, General Manager Commercial, ExecuJet South Africa, continues.
The RUAG facility in Bern guaranteed the four week TAT on the phase four und six inspection event, including any and all findings as well. “Our customers rely on the flexibility we show in response to their individual requests, our extensive know-how, our transparent project communication, and our commitment to helping them achieve their priorities,” states Simon Hafele, General Manager Site Bern, RUAG Aviation.

“The industry standard for this MRO event is six weeks. We were able to leverage our considerable expertise and engineering support services to fulfil the inspection on time and with absolute precision,” he concludes.

ExecuJet South Africa took advantage of the Dornier 328’s downtime in the RUAG one-stop shop facilities by electing to optimise the inspection visit on behalf of the Botswana Defence Force; landing gear refurbishment and service bulletin issues were added to the package of provided services. A leading support provider for subsystems, RUAG maintains a dedicated in-house landing gear workshop in Interlaken, close to the Bern location, which supported the prompt and timely availability of the Dornier 328 with a loaner landing gear set.

“We are firmly committed to aircraft availability. Timely delivery is how we demonstrate that commitment,” confirms Heinz Scholl, Senior Vice President Military Aviation, RUAG Aviation. The business aviation service provider has an excellent reputation, in particular for heavy maintenance checks, C checks, modifications, complete cabin and cockpit reconfigurations and refurbishments, and turnkey package solutions. Top performance and an emphasis on customer support are viewed as contributing factors.

RUAG Aviation provides one-stop shop solutions for business jets, including MRO, cabin interiors, aircraft painting, system upgrades, component services, AOG, pre-purchase inspection, aircraft remarketing, and support and consulting.