Flybe secures ‘landmark’ RAF deal

The A400M Atlas airlifter will eventually replace the C-130J Hercules workhorse and is expected to stay in service for about 35 years

The group’s aviation services wing will provide airframe related maintenance for the fleet of A400M Atlas airlifters being assembled at RAF Brize Norton.

Flybe said its aviation services division was chosen by the plane’s maker, Airbus, “following a rigorous competitive process” based on commercial, technical and quality requirement criteria.

Saad Hammad, chief executive of the airline, said the group was “delighted” to have reached agreement about what he said was a “significant” contract with Airbus Defence and Space.

“This is a landmark agreement for Flybe Aviation Services and demonstrates the ongoing benefits of our reorganisation and turnaround plan,” Hammad said.

The UK government has placed an order for 22 A400M planes as a reinforcement of its airlift capacity. The A400M Atlas is expected to stay in service with the RAF for about 35 years. The first aircraft was delivered last month.

The contract signed by Flybe covers the first eight and a half years of the planes’ service. The A400Ms are being built as a  collaborative venture involving the governments and industries of six European countries, and is intended to support rapid reaction forces.

At over 45 metres in length, each aircraft is capable of carrying a load of 25 tonnes over a range of 2,000 miles. It can fly as low as 150 feet or at high-level altitudes to 40,000 feet, and it is able to deploy troops and/or equipment either by parachute or by landing on short, unprepared or semi-prepared strips.

The RAF says the A400M offers “significant improvements” in reliability, maintenance and operating costs over its current long-serving transport workhorse, the C-130J Hercules, which it will eventually replace.

Flybe said it will mainly undertake “base maintenance in support of Airbus’s own line maintenance, fleet management and material support activities”, with the aim of delivering an integrated support service at the A400M’s main operating base.

Flybe’s maintenance, repair and overhaul business is one of the largest in Europe, the division providing scheduled maintenance for its own fleet and third party customers.

A company spokesman said the RAF contract, although “a landmark”, would not improve the group’s finances significantly. Precise revenues will depend on what work is carried out.

Hammad has been battling to turn around Flybe since he took over from Scots-born Jim French last year. Flybe, which shed more than 1,000 jobs and axed some routes, turned a £41.1 million loss into an £8.1m pre-tax profit in the latest financial year, after cutting costs by 3.3 per cent.

The firm reduced the number of UK airports it flies from, although last month it said it was to re-establish the Aberdeen base that it closed down earlier this year.

Management is said to have considered selling Flybe Aviation Services when it was conducting its review of the business, but decided to keep it.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SCOTSMAN’S BUSINESS BRIEFING

• Get the latest business headlines from a variety of news sources emailed to your inbox each morning