Paul Dunford heads Flying Colours’ new Singapore centre

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Bombardier, Seletar Aerospace Park

Flying Colours, a company specialising in completion and refurbishment services for business aircraft, has appointed Paul Dunford as general manager of Flying Colours’s new Asian interior facility, based at Bombardier’s service centre in Seletar Aerospace Park, Singapore.

Dunford brings 25 years’ of aerospace experience and specialist knowledge of working on completion projects for Bombardier Challenger and Global business jets.

Previously working for Bombardier Aerospace in Montreal, Dunford relocated to Singapore to join Flying Colours in December 2014, where he is responsible for managing the progress of interiors completion projects, developing new business and building the onsite interiors team for Flying Colours.

“We’re delighted Paul agreed to join us,” said Eric Gillespie, vice president of Flying Colours. “His customer facing experience and understanding of the complexity of interior completions makes him a perfect fit for the role. He will certainly add real value to our growing Asian business.”

Flying Colours new facility became fully operational in early 2015 and has already a woodwork refinishing project for a Challenger 605. The team is now working on refurbishing and refinishing the woodwork on two Global jets.

Gillespie added: “This is a very important geographical area for our company. There are limited facilities in the region capable of refurbishing Challenger, Global or Learjet aircraft to the required standard so this is a great opportunity. Operational costs to fly aircraft back to North American or Europe are high – and down time becomes lengthy – so by having a local base we are fulfilling a strong market demand and anticipate we will continue to grow in the region as a result.”

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At last year’s ABACE event, Gillespie told Corporate Jet Investor that Flying Colours planned to initially employ a local workforce of around a dozen employees based at Seletar Aerospace Park, flying them over to Canada for training. He projected that the company would triple – or even quadruple – its workforce in Singapore within five years.

One year later, Flying Colours has already recruited 12 team members: six local technicians, four Canadian technicians and two administration staff. The appointment of Dunford will see him focus on meeting Flying Colours aim of employing mainly local workers.

The company plans to hire another six to eight technicians in 2015. “Paul will help us select the right candidates and then ensure their ongoing development supports the business requirements,” said Gillespie. “Right now, the skills needed to deliver the quality expected for Bombardier aircraft are rare, which is why we wanted to recruit someone who really understood the challenges and could rise to the opportunities presented. We have that in Paul.”

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