DC Aviation Al Futtaim (DCAF, Booth S052) has launched plans to build a second hangar at its stand-alone facility at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport. Also known as AMIA, the airport is commonly referred to by its IATA designation DWC; for Dubai World Central, – the massive new business and residential complex where AMIA is located. DCAF’s hangar project is in the late planning stage and design studies are nearly complete. “We are looking forward to breaking ground in the next two-to-three months, with completion at the end of Q1, or early Q2, 2017,” Holger Ostheimer, general manager, DC Aviation Al Futtaim, told AIN.

The new hangar will add 6,800 square meters (69,800 square feet) of covered space and bringing its total land-side plot area to 24,000 sq m (246,500 sq ft) and the apron area to 13,000 sq m (133,500 sq ft).   

DC Aviation set up the DCAF joint venture with UAE business conglomerate Al Futtaim in 2012, after managing one of its aircraft. Its partnership with the local group, which has interests ranging from real estate to retail, led to benefits some other players won’t enjoy, such as a stand-alone facility at the airport. Other FBOs are all centralized in their own segments of a common complex.

“We committed to DWC at a very early stage, in December 2010, when Omar Al Futtaim signed the land-lease deal with Sheikh Ahmed [bin Saeed Al Maktoum]. At that time, already we had formalized our plans to set up an operation at DWC,” Ostheimer said.

“Nobody in the industry [then] believed in the location, which was reflected in their hesitation in wanting to establish businesses out of a new airport.” Other major players in the global FBO market have seen their plans at DWC constrained by lack of space. [See separate story.]

DCAF continues to consolidate its position as first adopter for FBO and MRO business aviation services at DWC, and, with competing operations yet to enter full service, its head start is likely to continue to bring dividends for some time to come.

“We have now been in operation for two-and-half years, have multiplied our levels of activity, and have [attracted] a wide range of clientele that we [hope to] expand on,” Ostheimer said. “We are providing a boutique-style service, with maximum levels of convenience to the client at the highest levels of privacy.”

Aircraft Management Services

DCAF expects to add two new managed aircraft a year to the four it now has on its ledger: a Global Express, two Challengers and one Gulfstream G200. DCAF provides MRO services for the Challenger and the Global Express. Managing owners’ aircraft and making them available for charter service by third parties is the most common charter business arrangement in North America, and DCAF follows the same pattern. “The company does not own [its own] aircraft and will never do so,” he said.

Addressing the preference some customers have for the older international airport closer to downtown Dubai, Ostheimer said slots at Dubai International (DXB) are vanishing and more difficult to secure than ever. “If you are operating at peak times, and want to fly in at 11:00 p.m., the slot proposal will be 3:30 a.m. After renegotiation nearer the time, it might be closer to 12:30 a.m. or 1:00 a.m., still about two hours away from when the client originally wanted to arrive,” he said.

“At DWC, you decide you want to arrive at 11 p.m. and five minutes later, you have the confirmation.” The airport’s location, about an hours’ drive south of downtown Dubai, was not a critical issue, he added, since several clients hail from The Palm Jumeirah or Emirates Hills in South Dubai, much closer to DWC than to DXB.

As a general rule, he said, each business jet carries an average of 2.3 passengers, while the average flight departing from DWC is four hours. Popular destinations are Riyadh and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, India, and Europe, including London, Paris and Moscow.

“We [recently] had the most aircraft ever in the hangar; 10 aircraft. The busiest day in recent months saw 25 in total on the DCAF apron and inside the hangar,” he said. “Most of the time, it is the large aircraft, like the [Bombardier] Global Express, or [Gulfstream] G550, or G650. The biggest aircraft we have handled on the ramp was an [Airbus] A340.”

Corporate History

DC Aviation originated in 2007 from DaimlerChrysler Aviation, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler AG, which, itself, was the result of a merger between auto makers Daimler of Germany and Chrysler in the U.S. The original aviation unit was established in 1998 in Germany to provide an air-bridge between Stuttgart and Detroit, the respective bases of the two car manufacturing giants.

At its peak, DC Aviation owned all 11 of its aircraft between 2001 and 2006. Immediately after the dissolution of the Daimler-Chrysler merger in 2007, DC Aviation was put up for sale and private entity ATON GmbH took the entire stake.

In late 2007, DC Aviation started to provide aviation services to Al Futtaim. “From then on, Al Futtaim was exposed to DC Aviation’s service levels and very soon a common understanding arose to encourage both parties to consider a mutual cooperation in Dubai.”

Discussions continued, and with the improvement of market conditions at the end of 2010, both parties wanted to make the merger happen, spurring Al Futtaim to commit to a land-lease.

“At the end of 2010, the project finally started taking shape by way of drafting a joint venture agreement. At this stage, I came in to provide services as a consultant to bring the two joint venture partners together, to turn it essentially into a joint venture contract. That contract was closed in January 2012,” Ostheimer said. “There was never a thought of DC Aviation wanting to go it alone. This collaboration emerged from healthy and strong dynamics between two strong partners.”

Ostheimer believes the market at DWC has improved since DCAF opened in 2013. “Today, we look at a completely different environment. We have [our facility], the executive terminal has opened, the flight training academy is open, and its runway is under construction.”

He said it is a little early to say, but, “Expo 2020 is going to increase the level of exposure from which we stand to benefit,” he said. Looking to the future, he has a modest outlook, but believes the market will continue to provide aircraft management opportunities both vertically, with new aircraft entering into service, owned and operated by end users within the UAE or GCC, and horizontally, with owners wanting to seek new management solutions from one operator to another.

AIN asked Ostheimer whether a presence in Saudi Arabia was likely for DCAF. “It has been and continues to be interesting. As to when this would be likely to happen, there is no information I can provide at this stage,” he said. “What Riyadh and Jeddah both have is an exorbitant amount of aircraft in place. The market and the locations of those two airports both come with particular challenges, which make it a bit more complex to run an operation.”

 “The UAE will continue to provide for growth in marked contrast to the decline in other markets. In years to come, I am positive that the market will grow at a moderate level, or around 5 percent annually,” Ostheimer concluded.