Moving forward with TREPEL

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Airside International talks to TREPEL and finds out how the German company has positioned itself as a high-end provider of loaders and pushback tractors

TREPEL Airport Equipment puts quality at the top of its priority list, explains the company’s sales director, Carsten Schimkat. It is one reason why it continues to manufacture all its GSE in Germany – “not that common anymore,” he notes – and why indeed it continues to manufacture at all, rather than sub-contract that work and simply handle final assembly; this way, all quality control is retained in its hands, Schimkat notes.

While its products may be of the highest quality, they are also designed and manufactured to be relatively simple, in order to make them easy to maintain. Customers lacking sophisticated repair shops can still maintain their own equipment, he observes.

They are also produced so that they are comfortable to operate. Thus, for example, the tractors are designed with an ergonomic cabin, while a hydro-pneumatic front-axle system offers the best possible driving comfort (as well as having something of a safety benefit).

Efficient after-sales service adds value to the product – “We put a lot of focus on this,” Schimkat insists. Spare parts are made available at short notice and individuals from a large team of TREPEL field engineers criss-cross the globe to assist customers wherever and whenever needed.

Delivering GSE to more than 100 countries right around the world, TREPEL is certainly doing much that’s right. Yet it is not resting on its laurels. Always attempting to retain a competitive edge, it regularly upgrades its products in order to incorporate the latest in available technology.

New product

The manufacturer is also not lacking when it comes to introducing new models of GSE to the market. Its latest offering is the Challenger 150, a small pushback tractor that comes “at an attractive price”, informs Schimkat. Capable not only of towing the world’s huge fleets of B737s and A320 family aircraft, they can also handle aircraft as large as the B767-300. There’s been a lot of interest in the Challenger 150, which was only placed on the market earlier this year.

According to Schimkat, other new conventional pushback tractors will be added to the TREPEL portfolio over the course of the next six months or so. And also on the drawing board is a re-design improvement of the firm’s CHAMP 35 loader, a small unit intended for the handling of small containers such as LD2s and LD3s.

It’s been a good year so far for TREPEL sales, he insists, with no sign of the economic downturn affecting its equipment’s popularity. Indeed: “It could be one of our best,” he says. And further growth is expected soon.

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