With more than 180 Gulfstream operators, Europe is a major region for the Gulfstream Aerospace, and the company has recently expanded its support infrastructure in the continent. At Luton Airport, the company’s support center has added more employees, while the mobile repair team unit, part of the field and airborne support team (Fast) network has also grown in size. Fast engineers are based in Athens, Paris and Switzerland, and one more is to begin operations from Kiev.

Gulfstream has also increased its Europe-based spares holdings to $125 million, of which the majority is held at Corjet Maintenance’s warehouse at Madrid-Barajas. Luton holds spares in a 10,000-sq-ft warehouse, while Jet Aviation Basel also maintains a spares depot. Gulfstream operates a 24-hour call-in number and can ship parts anywhere in Europe and the Middle East within 24 hours. Jet Aviation provides three authorized service centers at Basel, Geneva and Moscow, while Corjet is one of three authorized warranty facilities, the others being Altenrhein Aviation’s facilities in Switzerland and in Kiev.

Gulfstream Luton moved into a new 75,000-sq ft hangar in September 2011, where it conducts Part 145-approved repair and Part 21-approved design activities on up to 12 aircraft at a time. As well as work at the Luton base, the facility services more than 100 aircraft per month at other sites. AOG activities have seen Luton technicians respond to requirements as far away as India and Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Gulfstream has been approved by the FAA to add the G650 to its Forms (flight operations risk management service) program. Forms collects data during all phases of flight and identifies when certain criteria have been exceeded, as well as conditions prevailing at the time. This is presented in the form of event reports and also as a quarterly report. Data from all Forms-enrolled operators is collated for wider dissemination, providing a useful tool for identifying areas where training and procedures may need modification.

For the G650, Forms data can be transmitted via the PlaneConnect health and trend monitoring service. This system provides near real-time aircraft condition monitoring by recording up to 10,000 parameters to generate high-priority crew advisory events as well as records of engine health data.