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It is my great pleasure to introduce this edition of AERO magazine. In our last issue, my recently named successor, Jay Maloney, explained our 787 service, GoldCare.
GoldCare began in 2004 when we put a small team together to develop a new service around the 787, leveraging capabilities throughout Boeing and our supplier network. We saw the potential to add customer value and began discussions with 787 customers to assess whether they also saw this value.
Responses were far-ranging, but the general opinion was that GoldCare did indeed add value and appeared to be well-aligned with market trends toward airline outsourcing of material management, engineering, and maintenance. Most importantly, customer responses indicated a clear desire for original-equipment-manufacturer services to provide technical, logistical, and regulatory support not available elsewhere in the marketplace. Our goal has been to imbed unique, value-added benefits in the GoldCare service, many of which Jay reviewed in his article.
Since we announced TUI Travel as the GoldCare launch customer, we have received many customer inquiries. Much of the interest has concerned platforms other than the 787. Given the high level of customer interest, Boeing is now offering the GoldCare service on all Next-Generation 737 airplanes, and the GoldCare team is engaging with several operators. We expect to make a launch customer announcement in the near future. We are also evaluating GoldCare offerings for the 777 and 747-8 models.
If you have ever received an e-mail from me, you may have noticed that I include a quotation by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which I think best describes our journey to bring GoldCare to reality. It reads, “At first, people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done — then it is done, and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.”
Developing a product that provides high value to customers is what Boeing is all about, and it has been personally very rewarding for me to see GoldCare come to market for our customers.
Please enjoy this issue of AERO magazine!