Charles Alcock is managing editor of the AIN Media Group, having rejoined the company in 2019. He has been an aviation journalist since 1986, and previously worked for AIN from 1990 to 2017, most recently as editor-in-chief. His main focus is on covering new aviation technology and business models, as well as international news.
Having been raised in the London area, Alcock studied at the University of Manchester in the UK and earned an honors degree in Politics and Modern History. He speaks English and French, and some German.

Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft.

Gulfstream Aerospace is capitalizing on what it views as one of the most significant customer support investments in its 67-year history. The expansion and modernization of its maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities, as well as parts availability, airborne logistics, and expansive employee training, is being prioritized to support its more than 3,300 aircraft in service as the fleet continues to grow.
During 2024, Gulfstream added a repair and overhaul facility at Alliance Airport in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as opened its newest 225,000-sq-ft service center in Mesa, Arizona. It also recruited several hundred more customer support staff worldwide and expanded its Savannah service center East building by more than 160,000 sq ft.
“The initiation of this investment trajectory was a shared vision of my predecessors,” Lor Izzard, Gulfstream’s new customer support leader, told AIN. “During this time of large-scale growth, my high-level objective is to ensure our customers are engaged, informed, and empowered to communicate transparently with us so that we can ensure our growth is additive to the overall Gulfstream support experience.”
The customer support team craves granular, actionable customer feedback after every interaction with operators. This process includes holding dozens of customer events annually around the world, as well as surveys requested after every service visit.
According to Izzard, the voice of the customer should be at the center of its continuous improvement process. Gulfstream’s view is that how it serves its customers is just as important as how the aircraft themselves perform, especially as the fleet grows.
“All of this input bubbles up into the customer voice, and we actively pursue the feedback because we want to know what went well and what we didn’t do so well,” Izzard explained. “Customer questions expand our perspective, and [it] is feedback that we greatly value.”
<h2>Getting Support Closer to Operators</h2>
Field and Airborne Support Teams (FAST) are a key element of Gulfstream’s customer support network. The teams were originally deployed from service center locations but have since been adjusted to a forward-deployed FAST base location strategy.
“This forward-deployed approach puts FAST teams in locations closer to the need, which not only improves response time due to proximity but has also opened up additional labor markets,” Izzard said. “Since making this change, we have seen significant expansion in our worldwide FAST network, increasing by 30 people in 2024 and an additional 10 already in 2025 for a total of 150 people worldwide as we continue to grow.”
New technology is also helping Gulfstream to up its customer support game, with its predictive analytics software platform being a prime example of this progress. According to Izzard, its use of aircraft health and trend monitoring systems was initiated with the G650. This same benefit is now being brought forward with the next-generation fleet of aircraft as part of efforts to avert aircraft-on-ground (AOG) situations through proactive interventions in response to early indicators of equipment failures.
“The real-life benefit is in the creation and activation of analytics monitoring, which allows us to intervene before an in-service event, and to get in front of any potential issues,” Izzard explained.
Gulfstream developed the system to ensure that the data monitored is vetted against real-world scenarios and that any issues flagged are accurate and meaningful. The amount of data now being processed from the Gulfstream fleet is vast: the system is recording around 11,000 parameters per second, resulting in a total data mass of about 10 trillion parameter records.
“We can turn back the clock to a moment in time, allow a newly created monitor to run against the data available at that date, start the clock, and understand the monitor’s ability to accurately predict an event that we know occurred,” Izzard explained. “With this accuracy now known, we have the confidence to implement monitors without creating false events—this is key. I’m very proud to say that we are proactively intervening and preventing AOG events more and more every day. AOG reaction has been our focus for decades, but I believe AOG prevention is our future.”
Customer support now represents more than one quarter of the entire Gulfstream organization, operating at more than 80 locations worldwide (including partners). The network consists of 11 company-owned service centers, plus six more operated by its General Dynamics sibling Jet Aviation. There are also 27 authorized warranty facility agreements in place, 24 forward-deployed global FAST bases (13 in the U.S. and 11 overseas), and 12 spares distribution locations.

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