China and Nigeria have recently granted maintenance organization (AMO) designations to Gulfstream Aerospace’s Appleton, Wis. service center. The approvals allow aircraft registered with the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to use the MRO facility.

“Foreign authorizations are important to our customers, particularly from countries such as China, where our fleet has grown from zero to more than 40 in about 11 years,” said Mark Burns, president of Gulfstream Product Support.

Gulfstream currently has about 150 aircraft based in the Middle East and Africa and approximately 200 in Asia-Pacific. The OEM does not currently have any authorized service centers in China; however, Gulfstream Beijing, a joint venture with Beijing Capital Airlines and Grand China Aviation Technik, is expected to be operational by the end of this year or early next.

“Nigeria is considered one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Along with Brazil, Russia, India and China, it has been dubbed one of the BRINC countries mainly because it is Africa’s largest oil producer,” Burns told AIN.