Bell focuses on support with new Customer Advantage Plans

Bell Helicopter isn’t unveiling a new helicopter model at HAI Heli-Expo 2016 (although it has plenty of exciting aircraft at the show, including a Bell 525 Relentless flight test vehicle and a mockup of the V-280 Valor tiltrotor). Instead this year, the company is keeping its focus squarely on customers with the launch of new “Customer Advantage Plans” — aftermarket service plans that are designed to offer customers “holistic coverage solutions” for their daily operations.

According to Glenn Isbell, executive vice president of Customer Support and Services, Bell’s new Customer Advantage Plans differ from other service plans in their comprehensiveness. Available in two forms — Standard and Premier — the plans provide complete direct maintenance cost protection for a fixed cost per flight hour. Developed to help customers predict and stabilize maintenance costs over time, the plans also come with preferred rates at the more than 100 Bell Helicopter Customer Service Facilities worldwide, plus access to parts in the rotable pool to minimize aircraft downtime.

The plans are available for both new and existing aircraft, are transferable upon aircraft resale, and optional coverage for non-standard kits is also available. North Texas-based CareFlite, which operates four Bell 407GX helicopters, was announced as the launch customer for the plans.

Isbell said that the new plans “will provide customers increased value through predictable operational budgeting, flexibility to changing mission demands, and enhanced financial benefits.” In developing the plans, he said, Bell has “tried to address what [customers] were most concerned about. But he pointed out that the plans aren’t limited to big-ticket items: “If the door handle breaks, we’ve got that covered, too.”

Bell is also working to bring customers hourly engine service offerings to provide “additional budget certainty for the entire aircraft.” At HAI Heli-Expo 2016, Bell announced a collaboration with Turbomeca to offer comprehensive aircraft and engine protection for the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, “all for around $300 per flight hour.” Additional offerings are expected to be available later this year.

Customer Advantage Plans are only one of the ways in which Bell is doubling down on customer support. “We have the No. 1 support network, but we’re trying to grow it and change the game completely,” Isbell said. Among other things, the company has recently invested heavily in predictability analytics to help improve parts support. Said Isbell, “We’re really focused on having the right parts in stock and having them in the right place.”

Bell parts support will also receive a boost from parent company Textron’s recent acquisition of Able Engineering and Component Services and Able Aerospace. Based in Mesa, Ariz., Able provides component repairs, component exchanges, and replacement parts for commercial rotorcraft and airplane customers around the world, and has developed over 2,800 proprietary, Federal Aviation Administration-approved repairs on aircraft components.

According to Isbell, Textron had been working on some business relationships with Able for a while, and eventually concluded that it made sense to purchase the company outright. Able will support all in-production Bell helicopter models and several out-of-production platforms immediately, and Isbell said that Bell customers will start to see “an increase in cost-efficient products and solutions” as a result of the acquisition. However, he also noted that preserving Able’s “flexible, responsive culture” will be a priority for Textron. “Our intent is to keep Able operating pretty much as is,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bell is working diligently to prepare for the entry into service of the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X (powered by the Turbomeca Arrius 2R), which is expected to receive initial type certification this year. Isbell said that Bell and Turbomeca are in the process of syncing up their respective customer service networks in order to be ready for 505 customers, and there will be plenty of them — Bell has recorded more than 350 letters of intent for the aircraft so far.

Strong 505 sales have been a bright spot for Bell in a tough market. Bell profits were down $22 million in 2015, the result of fewer commercial medium helicopter deliveries and a drop in spares volume that was primarily driven by a reduction of flight hours in the medium segment. For customers in the resource sector who are facing the worst economic headwinds, Isbell said, “what we’ve been trying to do is keep our business arrangements relatively stable.” That might mean honoring fleet discounts, even when customers are flying less, as Bell tries “to hang with them in those down cycles, too.”

Meanwhile, Bell continues to expand its presence internationally. Bell has been growing its capabilities at its European headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic, and Isbell said the company will be delivering more helicopters from the Prague facility in the months and years to come. And, later this year, Bell will be opening its joint training facility with TRU Simulation + Training and Textron Aviation in Valencia, Spain. Not only is Valencia a beautiful destination in itself, it should provide a more convenient training option for Bell customers in the region who would otherwise need to travel to the Bell Helicopter Flight Training Academy in Fort Worth, Texas.

“There are a lot of customers that we have that come from all over the world to go to Fort Worth,” Isbell said. “The demand on our training business is very high — we’ve been focused a lot on being able to grow that capacity.”