Fokker services enters India

Fokker Services has entered a strategic co-operative venture with the Cades engineering agency in India. As a result of the increasingly project-based nature of its engineering activities and the associated demand for greater flexibility. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed recently by CEO Hans Berends van Loenen of Fokker Services and Dataram Mishra, the CEO of Cades.

With this co-operative venture, Fokker Services has reinforced its long-term competitive position and paved the way for further growth. Now, Fokker Services can make flexible use of Engineers from India who are educated and trained by Fokker Services.

After a stringent selection process, India was chosen as the most realistic location for co-operation. English is the lingua franca; the country has an excellent infrastructure, there are many highly educated people available and the country has a reputation to keep in the field of ICT, technological applications and aeronautics. In addition, Indian aviation companies have recently bought many aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. As a result of the compensation schemes, there is a possibility of many orders from Boeing, Airbus and their subcontractors for companies that perform activities in India.

Following extensive discussions with various engineering agencies in India, Fokker Services chose Cades as the most suitable partner for co-operation. Fokker Services will assist Cades with projects for new aircraft building programmes. In turn, Cades will offer assistance if Fokker Services offers large (conversion) projects, such as aircraft conversions from passenger to VIP aircraft.

Hans Berends van Loenen said about the partnership: "This co-operative venture gives us an even firmer foundation for our Engineering knowledge, which serves as the basis for further growth. Not only for Fokker, but also for non-Fokker aircraft."

Jeanke van der Haar director marketing and communications, speaking to Nehul Jagdish Kumar he said: “ We are proud indeed to announce our partnership with Cades, which is mainly focussed on sharing aerospace engineering resources. This will give both of our companies opportunities to better adjust to the capacity requirements of engineering projects, as well as creating more business potential.

“This business is predominantly on non-Fokker aircraft, such as Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier aircraft which are being converted in our Dutch facilities today. It will also help us in seizing opportunities of Engineering packages that, for instance, Airbus is outsourcing in India”.
We are positive towards this initiative, since it can only be beneficial for our support business, he added.

The booming Indian Aerospace Industry also gives many opportunities for a maintenance and support organisation such as Fokker Services. We company has services facility in Singapore. The company have extensive ATR42/72 MRO capabilities and we are able to support Indian operators on this aircraft type, he stressed.

Being the Type Certificate Holder on all Fokker aircraft, Fokker Services has all the skills, facilities, equipment and systems in place to deliver full support to aircraft operators and owners in the continued competitive operation of their fleet. Our focus is mainly on the regional (50-100 seats) aircraft, since we have a hertitage of almost 100 years building and maintaining aircraft in this specific market segment. Especially when companies start up their operation with a new aircraft type, the

combination of OEM (design) knowledge and independent after-sales support services make Fokker Services a unique and valuable partner for the global aerospace industry, Jeanke van der Haar concluded.


Fokker Services is part of Stork Aerospace.