Close up: A visit to Bombardier’s Dubai Line Maintenance Station

In this ongoing series, we connect with our service leaders to find out what they do best and how their teams take customer service to a whole new level. 

Here, we speak with Jason Martin, General Manager of Bombardier’s Line Maintenance Station in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Located in the heart of the Middle East, the UAE is known for its luxury, towering skyscrapers and bustling business districts – and as a major hub for airlines and corporate jets. With its strategic location, Bombardier’s Dubai LMS was established in 2021 to provide a high level of service to our customers in the UAE, surrounding regions and aircraft in transit. 

Please tell us a bit about your service centre. 
Our team of highly trained and certified technicians performs a wide range of inspections, minor repairs and modifications. In addition to scheduled and non-scheduled inspections, we also provide entry into service (EIS) support to ensure customers and their crew are familiar with the technical operation of their aircraft. Our LMS also provides AOG support via Mobile Response Teams (MRTs), assisting customers with technical issues across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Since opening, we have steadily increased our capabilities, services and staff to meet the growing demands of our customers.  

Our LMS holds multiple approvals, including EASA, Aruba, Bermuda, Isle of Man, CAA, Indian and GCAA. FAA, Pakistani and GACA approvals are in process to ensure we can support customers from all around the world. 

How do you offer Bombardier customers a state-of-the-art experience? 

Being a Bombardier Line Maintenance Station, most of our work is centred around providing customers with short-notice support when they have a technical issue. This requires our technicians to be highly skilled in analysing an issue, finding a resolution, and returning the aircraft to service (RTS) in the shortest possible time. Our technicians have complete access to all Bombardier resources, including the Customer Response Centre (CRC), Customer Support, aircraft data, parts, service bulletins and engineering. This ensures quick turnaround times, something that non-approved service centres do not have. With Bombardier’s complete support behind us, we meet or exceed our customers’ expectations with minimal downtime. 

How many people work at the centre and what do they bring to the table in terms of customer experience? 

We have 22 staff at our Dubai facility, including our Operations Manager, Quality Manager, Maintenance Planners, Buyers, Material Handlers, aircraft technicians and NDT specialists. 

Working in a LMS means that every day brings different challenges, including: 

• Travelling to foreign destinations (often not the exotic ones) 

• Working in harsh environments, most often out in the open, with temperatures exceeding 50° Celsius 

• Liaising with the customers directly and providing regular updates on the status of their aircraft 

• Providing support to customers, often during their most difficult time 

• Working longer hours at times to ensure the aircraft is RTS to minimize any disruption 

• Being culturally sensitive due to various countries’ customs and religious beliefs 

Our team includes several different nationalities, all working together, with each understanding cultural differences. These life experiences, coupled with over 100 years of experience working on all Bombardier platforms, ensure our customers are in good hands. 

Is there something your service centre is known for doing especially well?  

In my view, it's each team member embracing accountability and finding solutions to RTS the aircraft, despite evolving challenges, while providing consistent status updates to customers. Flexibility and commitment are crucial when prioritizing customer needs – attributes I see our team members demonstrating every day. The Bombardier Credo perfectly reflects the ethos of the technicians and staff at the Dubai Line Maintenance Station. 

How do you make things easy for customers? 

There is a lot of moving parts in providing MRT support for our customers, which may include travel, visas, accommodation, parts, tooling, and working in different time zones to RTS an aircraft – all of which the customer seldom sees. The focus is always on the customer and trying to make the experience seamless, which wouldn’t be possible without our planners, buyers, operations, logistics, customer support, aftermarket sales, parts support and logistics staff, who all work towards the same goal. Here are some examples of our staff providing support to our customers in the MENA region: 

Are you working on any future improvements that you can share?  

We recently increased our work scope to include D1 (non-destructive testing, or NDT) specialized services. We are in the process of obtaining all approvals to support more customers in our region. Our focus for the remainder of the year is to increase our capabilities with a wheel and battery shop and General Authority of Aviation (GACA) Saudi Arabian approval. With a steady increase in workload throughout 2024 and the workshops we have planned, we will also require additional technicians and support staff to ensure we maintain a high level of customer support. 

What do customers say about your LMS?  

We are in a very competitive market in Dubai. Several other MROs provide support to Bombardier products, but we’ve seen growth year-over-year. I would attribute that to the hard work of our team members, who remember that our customers always come first! It’s the continual improvement within our organization – from benchmarking best practices to innovation, marketing, sales, parts, services, and streamlining processes – that ensures continued growth and success.  

Planning to be in Dubai? Visit Jason Martin and the friendly team at Bombardier’s Dubai Line Maintenance Station.