Jet Aviation (Booth H218), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, continues to develop its presence in the Asia Pacific region through existing locations in Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau. The company was founded in Basel in 1967 and has grown to almost 30 facilities at airports all around the world staffed by almost 4,500 employees. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. company General Dynamics.

The most recent Asia Pacific developments saw its Hong Kong facility receive EASA approval for Gulfstream G650 maintenance (in February), while G650 approval was received from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department just before ABACE. This allows the company to provide line and base maintenance to G650s registered in the PRC, Macau and Hong Kong.

“Our goal is to provide required business aviation services as close to demand as possible,” said Nigel Parker, managing director of Jet Aviation Hong Kong. Jet Aviation also has a 24/7 aircraft management and charter operation in Hong Kong that currently manages more than 30 aircraft (six of which are G650s), said Parker.

According to John Riggir, v-p and general manager, Jet Aviation Singapore, the company has been busy adding G650, BBJ and ACJ approvals to its site capabilities in the region. He also reported that Jet Aviation Singapore had “set new records” over the past year.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Swiss company’s Basel facility has completed its first Split Scimitar Winglet (SSW) retrofit on a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ). In this case it was for a first-generation BBJ (which is based on the 737-700), with the work completed under an EASA Supplemental Type Certificate. The winglets, based on a design by Aviation Partners Inc. (API), increase the aircraft’s range by 2 percent. API is the exclusive provider of SSWs for all BBJ, BBJ2 and BBJ3 aircraft.

“We have been working closely with personnel from Aviation Partners to gain experience and proficiency with the SSW retrofit,” said Jet Aviation senior v-p and general manager of its operations in Basel. “We look forward to supporting more Boeing aircraft owners and operators with SSW retrofits in the future,” he added, “whether in conjunction with routine maintenance, an interior refurbishment, a green completion or as a standalone installation.”

The company has been adding other capabilities at its Basel facility as well as the API winglet. Jet Aviation large-aircraft maintenance director, Estelle Thorin, noted that “Our new Honeywell APU overhaul system went live last year, and our refurbishment, modifications and upgrades division has been very active in new avionics upgrades and connectivity developments.”

Completions

To summarize the company’s recent completions activities , Jet Aviation accepted delivery of an ACJ330-200 for a Chinese customer in late 2016 for a VIP completion. The project is underway in the company’s Basel facility. In parallel, it is completing a BBJ1 for another Chinese customer.

Jet Aviation recently delivered an ACJ330, which it said represents a number of technological “firsts,” including reductions in weight that allow the aircraft to have the “longest range of any VIP Airbus A330 completed to date.”

The company said that it has experienced increased interest in Greater China with several current and potential customers being based here, along with increased interest from the Chinese-language media.

At its booth here at ABACE, the company has a delegation of completions specialists who are ready to meet potential customers. They will also be demonstrating the company’s Jet Vision design app, which customers can upload to their mobile devices.

21 Years in Singapore

Jet Aviation first established its Asia Pacific headquarters at Singapore’s Seletar Airport in 1996, so it has been building momentum in the region for 21 years now. In 2014 it completed a major expansion at Seletar that almost tripled the size of its facility there, with the addition of a 54,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar.

In 2015 the company completed an extensive refurbishment of its FBO, which provided ground handling for around 1,500 movements in 2015. Jet Aviation also offers handling at Singapore’s larger Changi International Airport.

More Asia Pacific expansion came more recently with a new 43,000-sq-ft maintenance facility and hangar being opened in Macua last year. This now provides much needed extra capacity, given that Hong Kong International Airport, where Jet Aviation already has a significant maintenance and aircraft management operation, is very congested.

Jet Aviation Macau last year won the public tender to operate a private aviation MRO business from Macau International Airport’s new purpose-built hangar, with Jet Aviation signing a 10-year concession agreement with the Macau Airport Authority.

The company has leased half of the new 86,000-sq-ft hangar in addition to 11,000 sq ft of workshop and office space. Jet Aviation is adding Macau to its Dassault and Gulfstream authorized service center approvals and extending its EASA and FAA Part 145 approvals to cover Macau, gaining Part 145 approval for the Civil Aviation Authority of the Macao Special Administrative Region (AACM).

When AIN visited the Hong Kong Business Aviation Center in early 2016, before last year’s ABACE event, Jet Aviation Hong Kong was finding the congestion at the airport caused considerable frustration, given its presence is in one of the HKBAC hangars, as it is a shared facility.

The airport has since made many improvements, according to HKBAC, which has also been working to improve its efficiency and better deal with its clients’ needs.

The Macau facility is a welcome relief valve, which will become more useful with the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau causeway/tunnel in 2018. There is also the possibility that a third runway will be built at HKIA, but it is unlikely to be in place until 2023.

Singapore remains the hub of Jet Aviation’s maintenance capability in Asia, however, holding approvals from the local civil aviation authority, as well as from the U.S., Europe, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Australia. The facility mainly specializes in working on Gulfstream jets, as well as the Boeing Business Jet family and most Bombardier Challenger and Global Express types.