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Canada Jetlines selects Safran wheels and carbon brakes for its A320-family fleet

Canada Jetlines, the new all-Canadian leisure carrier, with travel targeted for summer 2022 to serve several Canadian, US, Caribbean and Mexico destinations from its main hub in Toronto, Ontario, has selected Safran Landing Systems wheels and carbon brakes to equip its Airbus A320 fleet.

Under the long-term agreement, Safran Landing Systems will supply wheels, brakes and carbon heat sinks manufactured in its US-based plant in Walton, Kentucky, while the maintenance and logistics services will be provided by Hope Aero Propeller & Components, Canada’s leading wheels & brakes MRO specialist.

Lighter and more durable thanks to its high-performance carbon material and its superior anti-oxidation protective coating, Safran Landing Systems’ A320-family carbon brakes provide airlines with significant savings in terms of maintenance costs. Besides, thanks to their minimal weight, they contribute to the reduction of operators’ fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Safran Landing Systems is the world leader on the A319 and A320 wheels and carbon brakes market, equipping almost 5,000 airplanes to date, or more than 70% of the A320-family fleet worldwide.

Looking at projected growth of 15 aircraft by 2025, Canada Jetlines controls its operating cost to offer its passengers ever more affordable flights.

Brad Warren, Vice President Maintenance Operations at Canada Jetlines, said: “Safran Landing Systems was able to offer the most economical and reliable support package, which will allow Canada Jetlines to execute our growth strategy and focus on delivering the best value to our customers. We are excited for our new long-term partnership with Safran Landing Systems.”

Nicolas Potier, Executive Vice President, Wheels & Brakes Division, Safran Landing Systems, added: “We are very proud to be Canada Jetlines’ partner in its future success. Safran Landing Systems is committed to supporting the continuously growing leisure market segment in Canada and around the world, with efficient wheels & brakes products and flexible service solutions.”

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Canada Jetlines selects Safran wheels, carbon brakes to equip its A320 fleet

Canada Jetlines Operations Ltd. (NEO: CJET) (“Canada Jetlines”) the new all-Canadian, leisure carrier, is proud to announce today, a partnership with Safran Landing Systems, to equip its Airbus A320 fleet. The collaboration follows recent news that the airline selected Toronto Pearson International Airport (GTAA) as its travel hub.

Looking at projected growth of 15 aircrafts by 2025, Canada Jetlines aims to offer the best-in-class operating economics, customer comfort and fly-by-wire technology, providing an elevated guest centric experience from the first touchpoint. 

The collaboration follows recent news that the airline selected Toronto Pearson International Airport as its travel hub. Canada Jetlines Photo
The collaboration follows recent news that the airline selected Toronto Pearson International Airport as its travel hub. Canada Jetlines Photo

Lighter and more durable than the competing product, thanks to its high-performance carbon material and its superior anti-oxidation protective coating, Safran’s A320-family carbon brakes provide airlines around the world with significant savings in terms of maintenance costs, fuel consumption, as well as a reduction in their CO2 emissions.

“Safran Landing Systems was able to offer the most economical and reliable support package, which will allow Canada Jetlines to execute our growth strategy and focus on delivering the best value to our customers,” shared Brad Warren, Vice President Maintenance Operations at Canada Jetlines. “We are excited for our new long-term partnership with Safran Landing Systems.”

Nicolas Potier, Executive Vice President, Wheels & Brakes Division, Safran Landing Systems, added, “We are very proud to be Canada Jetlines’ partner in its future success. Safran Landing Systems is committed to supporting the continuously growing leisure market segment in Canada and around the world, with efficient wheels & brakes products and flexible service solutions.”

With travel targeted for summer 2022, Canada Jetlines was created to provide passengers another choice for travel from Toronto to the U.S., Caribbean, and Mexico. Visit www.jetlines.com to learn more, sign up for email updates, and follow on all social media platforms to join the Canada Jetlines family.

This press release was prepared and distributed by Canada Jetlines

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MICHELIN PARTNERS WITH HOPE AERO TO LAND NEW FLAIR AIRLINES CONTRACT

Michelin North America, Inc., in partnership with Hope Aero, has secured a new agreement for Canadian air carrier Flair Airlines.

  • New agreement provides a wheel and brake maintenance, repair, and operations package
  • Entire Flair Airlines fleet will be serviced

In order to provide a simplified wheel and brake maintenance, repair, and operations package to Flair Airlines, Hope Aero — with locations in Mississauga, Ontario, and Winnipeg, Manitoba — worked with Michelin to provide the comprehensive solutions package. Hope Aero will provide brake and wheel service and Michelin will provide tires for the entire Flair Airlines fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft.

“Our strategic partnership with Hope Aero allows us to deliver the best solution for tires and services, custom designed for Flair Airlines, through Hope Aero’s complete wheel maintenance service package,” said John Thomas, account manager for Michelin Aircraft. “The Flair Airlines B737 aircraft will be supplied with Michelin aircraft tires, featuring Michelin’s exclusive NZG technology that extends the time between tire changes and reduces foreign object damage, bringing value to the customer.”

“With aircraft safety as a top priority for Hope Aero and Michelin, this contract will provide a wheel, brake and tire package for the extreme conditions for load and speed in which airline landings endure,” said Joel Chlan of Hope Aero.

Flair Airlines, based in Edmonton, Alberta, is Canada’s only independent Ultra Low-Cost Carrier and is growing to serve 20 cities across Canada and five cities in the United States. Hope Aero, Canada’s leading aircraft component maintenance specialist, focuses on propellers, wheels and brakes repair and overhaul, dynamic balancing and non-destructive testing.

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Flair Airlines selects Safran Carbon Brakes on its 737NG and 737MAX fleet

Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier Flair Airlines has selected Safran Landing Systems wheels and carbon brakes to equip its 737NG and 737MAX aircraft fleet.

Safran Landing Systems will supply Flair with wheels, brakes and carbon heat sinks produced at its US-based manufacturing plant in Walton, Kentucky. Flair’s operations will be supported by Safran Landing Systems’ commercial and technical aftersales organization in Canada and in the United States.

The wheels & carbon brakes maintenance and logistics services will be provided in partnership with Hope Aero Propeller & Components, Canada’s leading aircraft component MRO specialist, from its facilities in Mississauga, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This award reinforces Safran Landing Systems’ worldwide leading position on the 737NG and 737MAX wheels and carbon brakes market, with almost 3,500 airplanes equipped or committed to Safran, at over 100 operators.

This selection is also a testimony to Safran Landing Systems carbon material’s superior performance, especially in regards to its Anoxy®66 catalytic oxidation protection systems against runway deicers, which are commonly used in Flair’s route network.

Commenting on this announcement, Guy Borowski, Vice President Maintenance at Flair said, “As an ultra-low-cost carrier, Flair was seeking a turn-key, cost-effective wheels and brakes solution to support this new phase in our company’s history. Right from the beginning, Safran Landing Systems and its Canadian partner demonstrated a strong proactive approach to build a long-lasting partnership with Flair and to meet our aggressive requirements.

Safran Landing Systems’ selection is also an important step for Flair in lowering its carbon footprint and becoming Canada’s greenest and most sustainable airline”, Guy Borowski added. Indeed, the operational advantages of the Safran carbon brake on the 737NG and 737MAX include a lighter weight compared with any other available steel or carbon option – up to 770 pounds (350 kg), which decreases fuel consumption and therefore CO2 emissions.

Nicolas Potier, Executive Vice President, Wheels & Brakes Division, Safran Landing Systems, added, “We are delighted with our selection by Flair, and welcome the opportunity to provide efficient, high-performance products that will support Flair’s “F50” ambition to operate 50 aircraft within 5 years. This contract also reinforces our regional leadership position, with Safran Landing Systems supporting 100% of carbon brakes-equipped Boeing 737NG and 737MAX in Canada.

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Hope for Tomorrow

On a bulletin board next to the conference room at Hope Aero’s maintenance and overhaul facility in Mississauga, Ont., is a list of six principles known as the Hope Aero Way. They’re short and simple statements, bits of wisdom that make good business sense and articulations of ideas founder Harry Hope always had but never wrote down.

The first principle is: jobs get done properly the first time. The second is: Hope Aero treats a customer’s aircraft like its own.

The third principle: Hope Aero employees know the business and understand their customers. The fourth: “We tell it like it is,” when it comes to time, cost and whether the company can handle the job.

The fifth has to do with efficiency: Hope Aero organizes its facility into specialized units that turn work around faster. The sixth: “We constantly reinvest in better ways of doing things.”

Those ideas are bred in the bone of Hope Aero, a leading aircraft component maintenance specialist focused on propeller overhaul, wheel and brake maintenance, dynamic balancing and non-destructive testing. They reflect the company’s values, define its approach and guide how it works together as a team and with its clients.

They may also help explain why the company has gathered a list of 200 regular customers that includes some of the biggest names in Canada’s aviation community: Air Canada, Air Georgian, Cargojet Airways, First Air, Air Labrador and Air Inuit, along with government agencies like Transport Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada’s Department of Defence.

But there’s more to it than that, according to Terry Hope, 58, a son of Harry’s and the company CEO. That’s only a starting point. Success also comes from Hope Aero’s practice of consulting with its employees, as was the case in a recent series of strategy sessions with all of its supervisors.

“[We went] through and hammered down through what everyone feels–where the company should go, how the company’s doing. And that’s where we came up with ‘world-class.'”

Being a world-class, preferred supplier of products and services is central to Hope Aero’s plan for future growth, something its broad, globally-recognized clientele already expects. But the company knows achieving and maintaining world-class status rests on its 90-person workforce, many members of which have been employed at Hope Aero for decades.

“Our people is our strength,” said Terry, who joined the family business full-time 39 years ago. “We realize that each and every day they know how to do their jobs, they do them well and they care.”

A history of success

Hope Aero has its roots in Harry Hope’s career at Western Propeller in Edmonton, Alta., where he began working as an apprentice in 1951 straightening propellers. Born in the small Saskatchewan town of Lashburn, he obtained his pilot’s licence in British Columbia and wanted to get a job flying. That dream never materialized, but fixing propellers was a way to stay involved in aviation.

Harry received his letter of authority to certify aircraft propellers as airworthy in September 1956; two years later, he opened a branch of Western Propeller in Winnipeg. In 1964 he bought a 50 per cent stake in Western Propeller (Winnipeg) Ltd. and moved east in 1969, where he opened an overhaul shop in Malton, Ont., about two kilometres from the company’s current facility near Toronto Pearson International Airport.

In 1982, the company added wheel and brake maintenance to its offerings, and in 2000 it started selling Chadwick-Helmuth (now Zing Honeywell) dynamic balancing equipment.

The Hope family became sole owners of the company in 1993 and changed the company name to Hope Aero Propeller and Components Inc. Harry witnessed exponential growth before he retired in 2001, seeing business double and re-double many times. The company had 250 work orders in its first year but had nearly 3,000 in 1997. Now, the company averages more than 12,000 work orders per year.

“Two main things,” said Harry when asked what explains that growth. “Look after our customers with quality work, and you can’t do that without great employees. Employees are what makes us tick.”

One employee’s story

Bruce Kentner started working for what is now known as Hope Aero in 1981, when he was 17 years old. He began as a parts cleaner and floor sweeper and eventually became facilities manager with a reputation for being able to fix anything that’s broken.

“I just enjoyed it,” said Kentner, 52. “Enjoyed the variety of things to do, and it’s more or less what I wanted to do … it was mechanical–work with my hands.”

He’s stayed so long in part because he has been treated well and paid well, he said.

“I guess you feel like family,” he added. “You feel like part of the organization. You feel like what you do matters … If you need something, they’re willing to listen to what you need. If you have an opinion, they listen to it. You’re just treated fairly.”

Many of Hope Aero’s employees are actual relatives of Harry and Terry Hope, including chief financial officer Cathy Dunn–Terry’s sister. But the company strives to treat all its workers as family.

“We try to treat our customers right and to treat our employees right,” said Dunn.

Kentner hopes to spend the rest of his career at Hope Aero, he said. At this point could he imagine working somewhere else? “No,” he said, growing serious in an interview interspersed with jokes. “I couldn’t.”

Hive of activity

When Skies visited Hope Aero, the shop floor at the Mississauga facility was buzzing with activity. Dozens of workers worked calmly but quickly on a variety of tasks, as Terry Hope stood on a balcony nearby, answering questions above ambient thumps and clanging metal.

“This is busy,” he said. “We are very busy.”

Tires wear out quicker on hot runways, so summer is busier than winter at Hope Aero. After about 10C, the wheel-related work volume increases.

Hope Aero completes work on about 10,000 wheels and brakes in a given year, including all of Air Canada’s wheels and brakes, Terry said. The company also works on about 1,200 propellers in a given year–work that’s much more intensive. Wheels and brakes are done on a production line, while propellers are done one at a time.

“You look at the task analysis of a [wheel] component, it’s 30 tasks,” said Terry. “When you look at the task analysis of a propeller, it’s 170 tasks.”

This is a glimpse of the company’s current capacity, but bigger things may be in store. Hope Aero aims to begin production in May 2017 as part of a Western Canada Centre of Excellence for aircraft maintenance activities in Manitoba.

Air Canada announced via press release on July 21, 2016, that it had signed agreements with three of its business partners that would help support the creation of the centre of excellence. Along with Hope Aero, the partners included Airbase Services Inc., an Air Canada supplier that specializes in aircraft interior equipment repair and maintenance; and Cargojet Airways, an Air Canada cargo partner that will establish its own repair and maintenance activities, according to the press release.

“The intent is wheels and brakes–to service the Western Canada wheel and brake market,” said Terry, referring to Hope Aero’s plans for the facility. “It diversifies our offering, in that we’ll have two centres to be able to get maintenance done, and can lean on each other as required.”

Hope Aero plans to hire an initial staff of four in Manitoba, with the goal of eventually employing 20 people in the province.

“It certainly won’t be instantaneous, but it might be a few years down the road to get that sort of number,” said Dunn.

Meanwhile, Dowty Propellers has announced a sub-contract agreement with Hope Aero to provide repair services for Dowty’s Canadian customers who operate Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 airplanes.

“We’re very excited that we’re being set up to do that,” said Dunn.

Along with that growth, Hope Aero continues to support humanitarian and charity work. Its employees are raising money to create a deep well in Africa, and the company is a proponent of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ont.

“We have a special place for all the men and women in uniform–a special place in our hearts,” said Terry. “Warplane Heritage keeps that message alive, so we never forget.”

What lies ahead

Hope Aero is moving forward with an eye on its past, pledging never to lose focus on the family principles that built the company. In other words, the Hope Aero Way has a place in the company’s future as well as its impressive history.

“It’s off to the next generation,” said Terry when asked for his vision for the future of the company. “I was walking around here this spring and just realizing that the future is very bright, and these people are coming along.

“I’ve got a couple of the staff where they’re saying they’d like their children to work here when they come of age, and it’s really good to see.

“So it’s to pass on Hope Aero to the next generation, whoever that might be.”

Ben Forrest is assistant editor of Skies magazine. Before joining Skies in 2015, he spent the better part of 10 years in the newspaper industry, where he worked as an editor, sports editor and general assignment reporter.