Boeing firms up Canadian presence with aircraft deals

OTTAWA, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Boeing is consolidating its presence in Canada with two major aircraft deals that guarantee long-term in-service support operations in the country alongside assembly and manufacturing activities.

In August, Boeing Integration Defense Systems won a contract to supply 15 CH-47F Chinook helicopters, designated in Canada as the CH-147, and earlier the company delivered four Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to the Canadian Department of National Defense for humanitarian and military operations. The C-17s have already been deployed, and the Chinooks are due for delivery starting in 2013.

Hal Klopper, a Boeing Co. spokesman, told United Press International Canada is returning to Chinooks after more than a decade. Canada first ordered nine CH-47C Chinooks in 1974 and operated them until the early 1990s.

The military then sold those Chinooks to the Netherlands as part of a cost-cutting exercise and did not have any of the helicopters in service until last year, when Canada bought six used U.S. Chinook D model helicopters and deployed them for operations in Afghanistan.

The two aircraft deals guarantee Boeing at least two decades of in-service support operations in Canada to supplement operations ongoing since 1919.

Boeing operations in Canada include units in Winnipeg, Richmond (B.C.), Montreal, Trenton in Ontario and the capital Ottawa. The operations support both Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and produce parts, components, assemblies and software applications for all of Boeing commercial jets.

Boeing said the Chinooks to be supplied to Canada would be specially designed to meet requirements for specific weather conditions in the country.

Boeing subsidiary AeroInfo Systems Inc., based in Richmond, B.C., was involved in the C-17 manufacture and will also help provide support for the new CH-147 helicopter fleet. The plant, acquired by Boeing in September 2000, manufactures maintenance-planning software applications for both commercial and defense customers.

Another division in Winnipeg, Manitoba, produces nearly 1,000 end item composite parts and assemblies for all current 7-Series Boeing commercial airliners. It is Canada's largest aerospace composite manufacturing entity, and a supplier to the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's newest commercial airliner.

After Boeing acquired Carmen Systems, a crew management and logistics software solutions provider based in Goeteborg, Sweden, in 2006, the company picked up more than 70 Carmen Systems employees based in Montreal, Quebec. This office and the rest of Carmen Systems are now part of Jeppesen, a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing.

Another Boeing subsidiary, Aviall Services, the largest diversified aircraft parts distributor in the world, operates six centers in Canada.

A Boeing spokesperson could not say if Canada had shown interest in expanding its military aircraft fleet or increasing the order for Chinooks.

Canada has launched an extensive military buildup as part of its Canada First defense strategy. Plans for reviving military shipbuilding are included in the program. Canada is concerned that its sovereign claim on the arctic is being challenged not only by Russia and European countries but also has not been acknowledged by the United States.