A little more than three years ago, we started the expansion our Bangkok site (in 2013 we moved in). This was an important step in our ongoing continuous development of CIEE.

We can sum up our objectives for this project as the following:

• Setting up a workshop dedicated to railway and aeronautical products with an annual turnover of €8 to 10 million.
• Aiming to produce more complex products, with a dedicated technical team.
• Increasing site capacity (m²) to handle growth from 2018 to 2020+.
• Allowing for an increase in the maximum current turnover of €28 million to €34 million thanks to the recently installed capacities.
• Maintaining a reserve capacity to capture new markets.

This €800K investment allows us to have a new air-conditioned production surface of 1400sqm. The technical added value will be an integral part of the teams’ work.

The architects plans are finished, the first stone was laid on March 10th. We will move in next November.

At the same time that the Dubai wide body hangar was being built, AIP began developing its aircraft interior design in the Middle East. Frédéric Seguy has been overseeing these two projects since his expatriation there last summer.

AIP recently joined forces with Greenline Interiors, a company that has been in Dubai for 40 years and specializes in the interior design of luxury hotels, palaces and some of the biggest yachts in the world. The new company is simply called AIP GREENLINE, Aviation Interiors and plans to start renovating aircraft interiors in order to subsequently ramp up manufacturing activities. Since March 1st 2017, Mark Chandler has been working with Frédéric Seguy as foreman. Mark brings with him over 30 years of experience in interior cabin design. Backed by AIP/AIT and Finaero, the team is currently concentrating on the redesign of the workshop located in the Greenline buildings, recruitment of a production team and the implementation of procedures to acquire local and European certifications (EASA PART145 + GCAA CAR145).

Please note that a new project will begin in April with Etihad Airways Engineering in Abu Dhabi, to support all work done in the A320 VIP cabins, work which is done with the help of AIT Toulouse. Let’s hope this is the first project of many more to come!

This morning the Paris Air Show opened its doors. During one week actors of the aviation industry worldwide will meet and discover technological innovations, conclude new agreements as well as meet new prospects.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, inaugurated the show this Monday in presence of a delegation of members of the GIFAS, the French Aerospace Industries Association, including Christophe Cador.

After his arrival in an A400M, the delegation greeted the President at the GIFAS Chalet to watch some flight demonstrations. The President then went to the Airbus Chalet where Christophe Cador had the occasion to present him our group and accompany him while visiting our stand as well the plane, where STTS has a booth demonstrating the group’s painting expertise. The President met Caroline Calmettes and Fabien Bordée, painters, David Soulage, technical manager as well as Matthieu Breton, Head of the Paris business unit of STTS.

“The visit of the President at our stand is an important sign of recognition of the knowhow of each and everyone of you. I was honored to present it to him in all of our names.” Christophe Cador President and CEO of Finaero.

Finaero pursues its development and announces at the Paris Air Show the attribution for its interiors branch, AIP, of EASA’s PART 21J certification.

The interiors branch AIP will now be able to certify its own designs through its recent PART 21J (EASA.21J.561) certification, in addition to its already existing PART 21G (FR.21G.0065) and PART 145 (FR.145.546).

This qualification will enable Finaero to offer its customers an even broader array of interior design services supported by its Roissy Charles de Gaulle design, certification and product office.

“We are proud of this accomplishment which rewards our team’s efforts, organization and know-how”, stated Jon Oruezabala, Managing Director of AIP. This new step is in line with Finaero’s already important development plan to diversify its service offering for its customers. Successful milestones these past months for the group also included:

• Painting & Sealing division, STTS, in order to improve the quality and efficiency of its services, has organized its offering into five worldwide divisions. Three new paint hangars (60m€ investment) are now up and running in Toulouse. The company has equally launched operations in the US, in Portland, Washington State, as well as the construction of a new A380 & VIP paint hangar at the new Dubai South airport.
• Interiors division, AIP, also recently announced the acquisition of SMTC, the French train interiors specialist, to further extend the group’s aviation interior’s service-offering to the railway sector as well as significantly reinforcing the branch’s production capacities to better serve the aircraft interiors market.
• Electric division, CIEE, has shown very good progress over the first six months of the 2017 exercise. CIEE is to extend its factory in Thailand which manufactures cables and wire assemblies. The branch is also due to set up operations in the US.

“Delivering diversity & quality on-time to our customers remains our number one priority. In order to do so our group has started undergoing a global transformation project underlined by the slogan: 1 group, 1 vision, 1 partner” said Christophe Cador.

Finaero acquired SMTC, the French train interiors specialist, on May 11th. The objective is to maximize synergies between SMTC and Finaero both in terms of accompanying developments in the rail industry worldwide as well as on know-how and expertise in the aviation industry. SMTC benefited from a 23m€ turnover in 2016 and counts 150 employees on its site in Boufféré (Vendée, France).

SMTC will as a result join AIP, the interiors branch of Finaero, specialized in the aviation industry and dedicated to manufacturing tailor-made and small series aircraft interiors. This new acquisition will further extend the group’s service-offering as well as significantly reinforce the branch’s production capacities to better serve the aircraft interiors market.

Furthermore, the other “business lines” of Finaero group undertook major projects over the past year:

• STTS (painting and sealing for the aircraft and rail industries), in order to improve the quality and efficiency of its services, has organized its offering into five worldwide divisions. Three new paint hangars (60m€ investment) are now up and running in Toulouse. The company has equally launched operations in the US, in Portland, which are equally very successful. Finally, STTS launched the construction of a new A380 & VIP paint hangar at the new Dubai South airport.
• CIEE (electrical systems) has shown very good progress over the first six months of the 2017 exercise. CIEE is to extend its factory in Thailand which manufactures cables and wire assemblies. The branch is also due to set up operations in the US.

“Our main objective remains the same, to deliver quality programs on-time” Christophe Cador, President.