“The process of selling the company continues: the phase is delicate and imposes the utmost confidentiality, but I can assure you that we are putting all our energy to get to select the buyer who offers the necessary guarantees, including financial, and is committed to supporting the long-term future of the company”.
It is with these words that the Commissioner of Piaggio Aerospace, Vincenzo Nicastro, opened today a meeting with the trade union representatives that took place in the afternoon at the Industrial Union of Savona.
“On the other hand, we cannot entrust the destinies of Piaggio Aerospace to those who do not intend to fully meet the requirements imposed by the supervisory authority,” explained Nicastro. “It should not be forgotten that the dual objective of the Extraordinary Administration is to offer a solid perspective of revival for the Company and for the almost 900 people who work there, but also to guarantee reasonable satisfaction for the creditors, in whose group there are the Piaggio employees themselves”.
Meanwhile, the company’s operations are moving forward, underlined Nicastro: “We continue to work hard to create new business opportunities, and to keep the Company’s order book rich”. The Extraordinary Commissioner announced two new contracts with the Ministry of Defence for a total value of around 46 million euro: two new orders that bring Piaggio Aerospace’s current backlog to around 490 million euro.
The first order, signed by the General Secretariat of Defense – Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness Directorate and with a total value of about 31 million euros – provides for the development, construction and “turnkey” installation of an advanced flight simulator for the P.180 aircraft at the military airport of Pratica di Mare, just outside Rome. The system will be used mainly for the training of crews using the P.180 aircraft supplied to the Italian Air Force.
The contract includes the installation of a “level D” full flight simulator system (the most sophisticated, able to faithfully reproduce the behavior of the aircraft in flight) based on the P.180 platform, and a computer based training for pilots. The task entrusted to Piaggio Aerospace also involves the construction of the infrastructure intended to house the system, a building that will also become the new headquarters of the Multi Crew Training Center of the Italian Air Force.
The time required for the finalization of the project, conducted in collaboration with the Canadian CAE – world leader in simulation solutions – is estimated at about three years. The objective is then to extend access – with timing and methods to be defined – to the crews of the other Armed Forces, the State Corps and possibly to other subjects.
The second agreement, worth about 15 million euros and close to signing with the General Office-Center of Administrative Responsibility of the Air Force, increases the maintenance activities – already regulated by a 2019 contract – of the Rolls-Royce V632-43 engines, better known by the name Viper: these are the engines with which the MB339 aircraft are equipped, or the aircraft that – among other things – are in service with the National Acrobatic Patrol (known to the general public as “Frecce Tricolori”).
“The flight simulator that Piaggio Aerospace will build for the Italian Air Force will be the first in Europe and the second in the world”, commented Nicastro with the union representatives: “It is a long-term investment that certifies once again the great value of the P.180, an aircraft that has not yet fully expressed its commercial potential and that the future, new owners will surely know how to enhance. The increase in the contract on Viper engines, on the other hand”, he continued, “is a tangible recognition of the extraordinary maintenance skills that Piaggio Aerospace – the only company in the world to be certified and authorized by Rolls-Royce to carry out these activities – has been able to build over the years”.