FLY ING C OLOURS
businessjetinteriorsinternational.com
056 OCTOBER 2019
Since its
inception in
February 1989, Flying
Colours has grown from
20 employees to around
500, and it plans to add
100 more over the
next year
CARBON FIBRE REFURBISHMENT
Gillespie believes one Challenger 850
refurbishment in particular pushed the
company’s design and customisation skills
to another level. The aircraft was given a very
modern look, with white seats, lots of carbon
fibre and a custom red divan. The project
also involved reconfiguration work including
modifying the mid cabinet.
The team flew to China to specify the interior
over the course of a week. “The carbon fibre itself
was very challenging,” says Gillespie. “The grain
is very specific. You have to look over every piece
for any discrepancy. It was pretty intricate.
And the customers were demanding in terms
of how it looked and how it matched up.”
The company has since done a couple of other
refurbishments using carbon fibre – even in blue
and an ‘earth tone’ variant – using the lessons
learned on that first project.
“A lot of detail went into it,” says Gillespie.
“And now it’s proved beneficial for the
completions we’re doing, because these clients
are very selective with what they like. This
project caught a lot of people’s eyes, showing
we can customise, and deliver on the cosmetic
side. So it was kind of a stepping stone.”
OPENING A FACILITY IN SINGAPORE
Flying Colours’ relationship with
Bombardier took another big step when
the OEM contracted the company to
provide interior services to Bombardier
operators at its new maintenance facility
at Seletar Airport in Singapore.
“Singapore has been a great place
to do business; it’s very established
and secure,” says Gillespie. “And the
relationship with Bombardier is growing;
we just renewed our agreement and
we’re looking to expand again, probably
doubling the footprint early next year.
Bombardier is expanding its facility, and
we’re going to grow along with them.”
Paul Dunford was hired to
run the facility (he’s now MD of
international operations), and he
went with Gillespie in 2014 to set
it up. A key challenge was staffing
it. Flying Colours took the approach
of training up local interiors novices,
bringing them over to Canada to learn
side by side experienced technicians.
“They then went back over there and it’s
had a ripple effect whereby those people
are training the next wave of people we’re
hiring,” says Gillespie. “It was challenging
at first, but they’re really great and hard
workers; they learned quickly.”
Apart from one ex-pat Canadian, the
team is now made up of Singaporeans,
Malaysians and Filipinos. As well as
interior warranty and repairs, the team
is now handling full refurbishments.
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