Competition is always intense in the business aircraft market and a new front has opened that’s affecting the whole industry. There’s a shortage of maintenance technicians and companies are getting innovative to attract and retain the people who keep their products flying. Bombardier recently announced it is hiring an additional 200 techs to beef up its service network, part of a marketing strategy that sells airplanes by ensuring support when its needed. The company made the initiative a main topic for discussion at the National Business Aviation Association convention in Orlando on Monday. Andy Nureddin, VP of Customer Support and Training, told a news conference the company works hard at recruitment and retention.
Nureddin said Bombardier has already hired 67 new techs and all will undergo training to learn the Bombardier way of doing things. He said Bombardier has affiliations with numerous colleges to keep the pipeline of new techs filled. At service centers in other countries, he said Bombardier hires locally but sends new techs to the U.S. for further training. “We’re working region by region,” he said.
