The name Banyan Air Service is a familiar one to the Latin American business aviation community, as the company has exhibited at LABACE for the past 15 years. The aviation services provider, which operates a massive complex at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), routinely services aircraft such as King Airs, Citations, and Learjets from all over the region in its role as an FAA- and EASA-certified repair station. While many U.S. aviation service providers suffered during the global economic downturn a decade ago, Banyan credits those Latin American customers with helping to sustain it through those dark days.

Banyan’s maintenance capabilities include all types of inspections for those aircraft, as well as maintenance tracking, structural corrosion and sheet metal repairs, and modifications, air conditioning system installation and repair, windshield repair, prepurchase evaluations, engine service, interior modifications, landing gear overhauls, and aircraft painting.

Its avionics shop specializes in major installations, line maintenance, bench testing, and inspections. With the ADS-B equipage deadline looming in the U.S. at the end of next year, the FBO said that slots in its maintenance facility are filling up quickly. “I am telling operators not to wait to schedule their slot for their ADS-B upgrades,” said Danny Santiago, the company’s avionics manager, adding the longer customers wait, the harder it will be to schedule, and the more expensive the upgrade will be. He noted that the company’s installation slots are booked through October. “Currently we have a Brazilian customer here doing a 12-year maintenance inspection on a Lear 60 and he inquired about ADS-B,” Santiago explained. “We are happy to accommodate him, but as time goes on, it’s going to get very difficult to do that without advanced scheduling.”

Operators of non-U.S.-registered aircraft will need to comply with the ADS-B Out mandate in order to fly in ADS-B airspace in the U.S. after Jan. 1, 2020.

The company’s parts department offers same-day worldwide shipping and export services and supports customers from Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador.

One of four FBOs at FXE, Banyan (Booth 2014), which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, offers more than one million sq ft of hangar and office space on its 85-acre leasehold and provides virtually any service an aircraft operator might require, if not from Banyan itself, then from one of its tenant companies. The 24-hour facility, home to approximately 450 aircraft, features a 15,000-sq-ft terminal, which is decorated in a Key West theme, and is highlighted by one of the world’s largest pilot shops at more than 5,000 sq ft, including a Gulfstream GII cockpit. Other amenities are a customer lounge with an 800-gallon saltwater aquarium, business center with wireless printers, three conference rooms (the largest seating up to 25 people), pilots' lounge/snooze room, flight planning, a duty-free shop, indoor customer car parking, customer mailboxes, a coffee/snack bar, and across the ramp, the full-service Jet Café.