Gulfstream Customer Support Expands in Europe

Gulfstream continues to see reasons for expanding its customer support presence in Europe with operations at London-area Luton and Stansted airports soon to be joined by a new factory-owned service center at TAG Farnborough Airport.

In June, the company renamed its product support organization—now labeled customer support—in an effort to further emphasize a customer-focused service experience. Gulfstream’s ongoing infrastructure investments in the busy London market are further supplemented by the European support network of Gulfstream’s parent company, General Dynamics, which owns Jet Aviation.

While speaking about the company’s TAG Farnborough location, Derek Zimmerman, president of Gulfstream customer support, said, “The European market is important to us. London is a very busy market, not just to have aircraft based there but there are also a lot of transient aircraft, so support infrastructure is critical. The TAG Farnborough location will be part of the European support network that includes the sites operated by our sister company, Jet Aviation. It’s really important to think of what we do, not as an individual or collection of sites but as part of a network. It’s not just part of the Gulfstream network but also part of the General Dynamics network.”

Gulfstream’s selection of TAG Farnborough as the location was supported by the airport’s strong business aviation traffic, which is expected to remain steady into the future. “We wanted to continue to grow and make significant infrastructure investments," Zimmerman said, "and to make sure we were doing that in a place that fit our business profile for the long term. That led us to building a purpose-built facility to fit the size and shape of the aircraft we’re producing now and will continue to produce into the future. We needed an airport that was supportive of business aviation both in the near term and the long term." TAG Farnborough proved to be the airport Gulfstream was looking for as “it was the right fit for us, the right time, and the right opportunity to meet a need in the right place."

Zimmerman noted the industry’s tendency to rely on third-party service providers and Gulfstream’s push to step away from that tradition. “We’ve taken a different approach to that," he said. "We are best positioned to understand and help Gulfstream operators with Gulfstream aircraft. We have the fortune of having a very financially secure and stable parent company that allows us to make long-term investment decisions in that support infrastructure. We’ve been investing in that for serval decades now."

While Gulfstream waits for the new facility at TAG Farnborough to open in 2020, the company plans to begin offering maintenance services using existing space at the airport in July 2019. “There will be a lead-in period as we are transitioning and getting ready to occupy the new building," Zimmerman said. "We are also not just at London Luton right now but we have some operations at Stansted. With a new hangar at Luton and extended additional capability at Stansted, we are seeing continued investment and continued growth in that marketplace. Farnborough is just the latest chapter."