By Rebecca Rayko
AWN Editor

NEW ORLEANS - More than one airframer was under fire at NBAA 2000 over the rising number of completion delays.

Customers are facing frequent and increasing delays in receiving their finished aircraft from completion centers worldwide, and given the steep price tag these business jets typically carry, the delays are not going over well with buyers.

Boeing Business Jets president Borge Boeskov said there have been delays of up to one year on the completions of some BBJs.

"There have been many problems with completions," he says. "The longest has taken up to 1.5 years; the shortest has taken nine months."

Boeing currently has seven authorized completion centers for the BBJ and BBJ2, but last week Boeing announced that Lufthansa Technik would be handling the completion of the 30-plane Boeing NetJets order.

The decision was prompted by the ongoing delays, Boeskov said. Hamburg-based Lufthansa Technik has contracted to handle completion work on up to 30 BBJs for NetJets, the joint venture between Boeing and ExecutiveJet.

Lufthansa Technik is aiming for 4-5 completions per year for NetJets. The downtimes will be five months each, and the delivery dates are "already firmly scheduled," said the company.

The first BBJ will be delivered to Boeing NetJets no later than August 15, 2001.

The new Lufthansa Technik service center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will join in servicing the cabin areas of the BBJs. Lufthansa Technik recently purchased Tulsa-based BizJet International, which specializes in business aircraft overhaul and maintenance.

Lufthansa Technik has also increased from two to four the number of its production lines in Hamburg and hired additional staff.

Even veteran business jet manufacturers have had to make adjustments to accommodate the rising demand for business jets.

Gulfstream president and COO Bill Boisture said by the end of this year, production and deliveries will finally be "at rate" - meaning orders and delivery levels will be similar at 70 and 75, respectively.

Gulfstream has grown its completions capacity over the last three years in anticipation of bigger demand, said Boisture. A major orders surge in 1997 (50) and 1998 (62) brought an imbalance to the production and completion equation.

Boisture expects Gulfstream will complete 75 aircraft in 2000.

French business jet maker Dassault says it's been on top of the scheduling problems that can lead to completion delays.

"Falcon completions lead the industry in quality and on-time performance," said Falcon Jet president John Rosanvallon.

"By and large we have avoided the pattern of completion delays afflicting our competition," Rosanvallon says.

This is mainly because Dassault had the foresight to expand its Little Rock completion center, almost doubling the size of its physical plant, more than doubling its employment, and investing heavily in new technology, he said.

This year Dassault will deliver 75 new Falcon business jets, the vast majority from its main completion center at Little Rock. A "small number" of overflow completions are done in Europe.

Also, since all NetJets aircraft are identically outfitted, their completion work was transferred to the main Falcon factory at Bordeaux-Merignac earlier this year.