Aviation technical asset services and trading company EirTrade Aviation is branching into the U.S. with its newly opened facility in Dallas Forth Worth, Texas. The 22,000 ft.2 facility, which is its first in the U.S., opened its doors in May and EirTrade expects it to receive its first CF6-80C2, CFM56-7B and RB211 engines soon.
“Having a base in Dallas Forth Worth gives us a strategic advantage as most used aircraft material in the U.S. is based in Miami, Chicago or Dallas,” says Ken Fitzgibbon, CEO, EirTrade Aviation. “We were fortunate to have experienced significant growth over the last year despite the pandemic and we plan to continue to build on this momentum. Within the U.S. we will be targeting both customers and sources for our material.”
The U.S. facility will be headed by EirTrade’s new director Bill Thompson, who joined the company in April. According to Fitzgibbon, EirTrade will be able to build upon Thompson’s established networks and connections, which he developed during more than 30 years at companies such as Delta Material Services, AerSale and GE Aviation Materials. “These will be imperative to our long-term ambitions and the expansion of this new facility is being fast-tracked,” says Fitzgibbon of Thompson’s networks. “EirTrade will soon become as well-known in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, Latin and South American regions as it is across Europe and Asia.”
According to Thompson, his intention with the new facility is to maintain a team that will bring experience across CFM56 and V2500 engine types while also augmenting the company’s overall capabilities into engine lines it has not previously supported, such as the CF6 and RB211.
“I am delighted to be leading EirTrade’s expansion into the U.S., especially at a time when the industry is looking for ways to extract maximum value from older assets and source equipment quickly and cost-effectively,” says Thompson. “We will be working with EirTrade’s existing infrastructure as an extension of its global activities to support U.S. contracts where a stateside warehouse will deliver improved turnaround times and improved opportunities for part-outs, storage and consignments.”
Thompson says EirTrade already has an extensive customer base of airlines, MROs, OEMs and repair shops in the Americas region, so the new facility will help it give greater attention to existing customers while further developing its customer base of airlines and lessors. “The ability for EirTrade to store engine and aircraft parts in the Americas provides another strategic advantage,” he notes. “It reduces logistics times for our customers across the region and provides an expanded global footprint for our inventory.”
The new U.S. facility follows the opening of EirTrade Aviation’s new headquarters in Dublin, Ireland in late 2020, which expanded warehouse capacity. EirTrade spent 2020 building up its pipeline for aircraft disassemblies, with the goal of performing two to three disassemblies per month. According to Thompson, EirTrade achieved this target through the implementation of a second aircraft line at its teardown facility at Knock Airport in Ireland. It is currently disassembling narrowbodies in 14 days from start to finish.
While the company plans to keep teardown capability in Ireland for the time being, Thompson says the new U.S. facility will provide another hub for its growing global sales team, aircraft and engine parts storage, and technical storage.
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