Bombardier today marked the opening of its service center at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (KOPF), which at 300,000 sq ft is the Canadian airframer’s largest standalone maintenance facility. The new complex, construction of which began in 2018, is replacing Bombardier's maintenance facility at Fort Lauderdale International Airport (KFLL), with full migration to the Opa Locka facility expected by year-end.

Comprising two hangars with capacity for up to 18 Global 7500 ultra-long-range jets, the center also features capabilities for interior refurbishment, scheduled and unscheduled heavy maintenance, aircraft modifications, avionics installations, and paint enhancement services. “Today, we do not have a paint facility here," Bombardier v-p of products and services Chris Debergh told AIN. “However, we provisioned land to be able to go and build one.”

Four mobile maintenance vehicles will be based there for AOG support, with expectations to add more in the future. About 140 people will initially work at the new center, including those employees from Bombardier’s KFLL facility. “We ran a recruiting event [two weeks ago],” Debergh said. “We had roughly 100 people come to the event and we hired about 40 of them.”

While “the Florida market has a lot of airplanes,” the new service center will serve Global, Challenger, and Learjet customers from Latin America, the Southeast U.S., and Canada, the latter of whom often travel to the state in the winter months, Debergh explained. He added that about 70 Bombardier customers are based at KOPF.

Miami-Opa Locka is the third new or expanded service center Bombardier has opened this year, such as in Singapore and in Melbourne, Australia. In November, the company will hold a grand opening of its expanded service center at London Biggin Hill. Debergh added that the company has also expanded its service operations in Wichita and Tucson, Arizona, as well as Dallas, where it has leased another hangar.