Rolls-Royce (Stand 1028) says that the opening of its new Customer Service Centre (CSC) at the iconic Aldar Building in Abu Dhabi is imminent. At the latest it will be fully operational by the end of 2017, said the company, and it will eventually employ 60 staff. The center will serve customers in the region, and these include Emirates, Etihad, Gulf Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines.

John Kelly, v-p customers Middle East and Africa, said that with growth continuing, "particularly in the widebody market," it makes sense to be closer to operators that are flying with Rolls-Royce engines.

The company has "a long heritage in the Middle East," said Kelly. Some 469 airliners in the region are Rolls-Royce powered, and these aircraft are in service with 36 operators, he added.

"We want to ensure the speedy resolution of any problems [and] we also need to make sure decision making and empowerment is in place at the front line. We need an agile and responsive infrastructure that's not anchored in one time zone."

Rolls-Royce now has a global network of CSCs, having opened the first one in Singapore in February 2015. "The Middle East CSC will complete the set," said Kelly. "Our new service model was first demonstrated in Singapore for the Asia-Pacific [region]. We found that 80 percent of things can be handled from there, and [average] response time was reduced by 75 percent."

One of the advantages of the Abu Dhabi location is that it is a close road trip to the Bibras Technology Park in Al Ain, where Rolls-Royce has an MRO facility in partnership with Mubadala.

The activities carried out in the new regional CSC are being transferred out of Derby, where Rolls-Royce's commercial aero engines business has its headquarters. The CSC will be "connected to the Aircraft Availability Centre based at Derby," noted Kelly.

Earlier this year Rolls-Royce brought its range of service offerings together under a single banner, CareStore. Its range of CareServices includes TotalCare, SelectCare and LessorCare but CareStore provides a wider range of digital services so it covers not only maintenance, but also, according to the company, "availability, efficiency, asset management, transitions and customer support...it is designed to suit [customer] needs at every stage of the engine lifecycle."