BAE outsources some spares inventory

By Martin Fendt

February 21, 2008
Aerospace Industry

As part of a wide-ranging rationalization of its global spares support business, BAE Systems Regional Aircraft (BAERA) has transferred all its Jetstream 31/32 spares to Saywell International, and factory-surplus BAe 146/Avro RJ inventory to Ansett Spares & Service. For both fleets, however, BAE will continue to provide full technical and airworthiness support, including delivery of technical publications to operators of the Jetstream 31/32 and BAe 146/RJ.

The BAE 146/RJ inventory acquired by Ansett will be stored at BAE’s spares logistics center in Weybridge, UK. Ansett will also relocate its existing operations and inventory at Heathrow to the BAE facility, where it will lease office and warehouse space from the British company. Ansett’s combined inventory at Weybridge will thus include spares for civil aircraft of all major commercial OEMs.

Once the relocation to Weybridge is complete, Ansett will retain full operational responsibility for the management and shipping of its spares into and out of the facility. Meanwhile, BAE will provide warehouse space and handling services for Ansett’s oversize components at its Prestwick logistics center in Scotland.

Sean McGovern, operations director of the BAE facility, explained that the company deemed as surplus the BAe 146/RJ stock transferred to Ansett. “It has come from the production lines back in 2001 and has therefore been on our shelves for more than six years,” he said. “Ansett will market those parts and we’ll take a royalty from subsequent sales. It is therefore in our interests to see that Ansett is well supported in terms of the information it needs in order to market and sell those surplus parts.”
McGovern stressed that BAE is still very much “in the business” of selling 146/RJ stock. “BAE will continue to hold over £100 million of ring-fenced stock at Weybridge,” he said. Asked whether that means BAE will effectively compete with Ansett, he said, “We are two completely independent businesses. Yes, we compete, and we may both stock similar part numbers, but there is also mutual support. For example, if we have back orders which Ansett can satisfy, and vice versa, then we’ll do that. We will also buy and sell spares between us.”

Meanwhile, BAE is transferring all spares stock for Jetstream 31/32 aircraft to Saywell International’s facilities in Worthing, UK, and Florida, in the U.S. Saywell thus becomes the sole worldwide spares distributor for the turboprop aircraft family. The organization also maintains spares distribution centers in Hollywood, Vancouver and Singapore.

BAE said it decided to outsource the Jetstream 31/32 spares provisioning to Saywell because of the ongoing dispersal of the fleet among smaller operators in Latin America, the Caribbean, Australasia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Saywell, for its part, was considered more capable of offering a more focused service to operators of the aircraft. McGovern said BAE harbors no plans to transfer stock from either the Jetstream 41 program or ATP into third-party ownership, nor does it expect to divest itself of all its 146/RJ stock.

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