Jet Aviation Acquires Savannah Air Center
Swiss-based Jet Aviation Group expanded its U.S.

Swiss-based Jet Aviation Group expanded its U.S. footprint last month with the acquisition of maintenance and cabin completion and refurbishment specialist Savannah Air Center. The deal adds some 280,000 sq ft of space at Savannah Air to the more than 650,000 sq ft at Jet Aviation’s Midcoast Aviation subsidiary in East Cahokia, Ill.

Both facilities are engaged in maintenance, repair and overhaul work as well as interior completion and refurbishment, and both are doing green cabin completion work on Bombardier’s Global 5000 and Global Express XRS. Like Midcoast, which was brought under the Jet Aviation umbrella two years ago, Savannah Air Center will continue to operate under its original brand name.

Jeff Zacharius, one of Savannah Air’s founders, will remain its CEO but will report directly to Midcoast Aviation president Kurt Sutterer. “Being part of a larger organization facilitates our growth and provides our customers with an expanded menu of service offerings,” said Zacharius. The center has just finished work on a new 101,500-sq-ft hangar capable of holding up to 10 Global 5000s, and Zacharius said a move into the narrow-body and widebody bizliner completion and refurbishment market is a possibility.

Jet Aviation currently handles narrow-body and widebody bizliner work at its facilities in Basel, Switzerland, where it is close to opening a 377,000-sq-ft hangar capable of accommodating an Airbus A380.