New Lives for Older Airliners While jumping from a Global to a 777 may seem extreme, at this end of the price spectrum it’s really pretty easy to justify. A quick check of a price guide lists a well used 777-200 for $42 million. Put in a new interior and you’re out the door for around $65 million. Speaking of competition for new Globals, attractively
priced ex-regional size jets are also attracting buyers. Based in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, Flying Colours Corp., has created a very active business by reconfiguring Canadair CRJ 200’s into corporate aircraft. “We take a CRJ 200 with a standard 50-passenger cabin
and replace it with a brand new, Challenger 850 style executive interior,” explained Sean Gillespie, the company’s director of sales and marketing. “Everything from the forward galley – all new cabinetry, new seats, entertainment centers, sidewalls – it’s all new.” “It’s treated like any other
Bombardier Challenger that comes in here for an upgrade or refurbishing. It just has a history,” he said. “As the prices for pre- owned Challenger 850s has gone up, our business for the airline conversions has gone up. We just delivered our ninth CRJ 200 conversion and we have a number of the projects booked now.”
Look Before you Leap While today’s market is primed for turning older airliners into new corporate and VIP aircraft, there’s a fine line between profit and poor business. So every project has to be looked at individually. “We do a very detailed
inspection of each CRJ aircraft. Floorboard corrosion has come up on a number of the airplanes we’ve done,” Gillespie said. “There are some things that are maintained better on some airlines than they are on others.” “There have been modifications
that have happened over time that, from an interiors perspective, whether they be structural or not, mean we have to deal with each one individually,” he said. “That’s a challenge.” Another challenge that can
evolve into a scheduling nightmare is the availability of original engineering drawings for cabins and equipment. If you’re ripping it all out and starting from scratch that’s one thing, but if you’re trying to update an existing installation that’s quite another problem. “Modifications to existing
electrical systems can be a bear without the original drawings,” Plavchan said. “If you don’t have
them we have to reengineer the drawings and that can change the entire project. While it’s not an interior issue, we’re having that problem with the 727 I mentioned earlier.” “It has the old Page AvJet fuel tank modification in it. The
company has been out of business since 1991. There is no documentation available,” he said. “What we’ve got to do is pull the old aux tanks out and do the wiring harness upgrade and have it re-STC’d.”
Keeping Everything in Balance Another major consideration when you’re doing a new interior configuration on a larger, single- or twin-isle aircraft is weight and balance. Owners can get awfully carried away with filling all that interior space with theaters, hot tubs, staterooms – you name it. ST Aerospace’s recent DC-8 project is a great example. “This was an all-inclusive project. Our scope of work for
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