EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008 - (Page 30)

EBACE 2008 RUAG Eyes Completions Business The shortage of completion centers for business jets is prompting RUAG to consider entering that business, according to Wolfgang Neumann, managing director of RUAG Aerospace Services. “We hope to have a business plan ready in the next three to four months,” he told Show News. “I am very optimistic we will be deciding by the end of the year.” RUAG already has the facilities and the capabilities. It has a lease until 2017 on 67,000 square meters of hangars and workshops at Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, and the wood, composite and sheet metal shops it acquired from the liquidators of Fairchild Dornier. “We have to see what the investment will be,” Neumann said. RUAG is no stranger to business jet completions. It has turned out 12 Dornier 328Jets with VIP interiors, as well as a dozen Bombardier Challengers. Its recent history includes refurbishment, layout changes and repainting of many regional airliners and business aircraft. In addition, it has extensive design approval authority at Oberpfaffenhofen. The business there already holds numerous STCs and can design and approve modifications on business jets and helicopters, from cabin completions to installation of avionics and special mission equipment. Completions to date have been on an ad hoc job-by-job basis; the new study will determine if that activity can become a business in its own right. “It would fit with our one-stop strategy,” said Neumann. RUAG Aerospace’s aircraft services business already operates the largest Citation service center outside the U.S., at Oberpfaffenhoffen, and has facilities at Zurich, Berne-Belp, Lugano-Agno, and Stuttgart. It is a factory authorized service center for Embraer and also provides maintenance and support services for the Learjet 45, the Challenger, the Global Express and large Gulfstreams. Earlier this year it won authorized service center approval from Bombardier, continuing a 28-year history of servicing Challengers (last year it chalked up some 250 maintenance events for Challenger and Global Express aircraft). RUAG also has a Dassault-approved major service center for Falcon business jets at Geneva Airport following its acquisition last year of TSA Transairco. That acquisition further underpinned RUAG’s strategy to serve the high-end business jet market from a geographic stronghold in Switzerland and southern Germany. It also has outstations in Kiev and Moscow, where many of its customers fly. RUAG’s paint shop at Oberpfaffenhofen is perhaps the busiest in Europe: last year it handled 61 repainting projects, turning out more than one aircraft a week ranging from regional airliners to business jets. The paint shop, which can accommodate a Boeing 757, is now sold out well into September, said sales director Bernd Sonntag. —John Morris David Stone and David McRobert. PremiAir Moves To Oxford Airport PremiAir plans to move its fixed-wing maintenance base in September from its headquarters at Blackbushe Airport, Surrey, UK, to a 20,000-square-foot facility at Oxford Airport. The Blackbushe facility no longer has sufficient capacity for PremiAir’s growing Hawker Beechcraft maintenance business, said managing director David McRobert. PremiAir is an authorized Hawker Beechcraft service center. With the move, PremiAir’s Blackbushe facility is to become a dedicated base for rotary wing maintenance, and its Oxford facility will expand the airport’s service offerings to cover all Hawker Beechcraft types, from the Beech Bonanza to the Hawker 4000. Oxford Airport will be refurbishing the hangar to PremiAir’s specifications over the next few months, adding electricity, lights, heating, modern insulation and administrative/reception spaces. “Oxford Airport has changed ownership, and the significant ongoing investment in the airport’s facilities and infrastructure played a major part in our decision to go there. It’s a great central location for us as a maintenance center with a terrific catchment area for attracting both new business, as well as the number of high quality licensed aircraft engineers we will need in order to expand our services,” said David Stone, PremiAir’s director of maintenance. PremiAir plans to capitalize on its helicopter charter and shuttle business from Oxford’s strategic location. It says the facility will focus on fixed-wing MRO, but it also hopes to attract executive helicopter owners interested in turnkey services. As manager and operator of the London Heliport, PremiAir seeks to generate revenue by offering 20-minute helicopter shuttles into London to jet owners who would rather save and park at Oxford. —Elyse Moody Diamond Sells Eight D-JETs To Smart Air of Luxembourg Looking more like a speedboat on a trailer than a VLJ in Saturday’s rain, Diamond’s D-JET fuselage mockup wears the logo and ‘Sized to Your Needs’ slogan of fractional operator Smart Air SA, which has made an initial buy of eight, with options for more. Luxembourg-based Smart Air says it plans to operate its D-JET fleet across Europe, initially in the Benelux countries, Finland, France, Germany and Italy, providing co-owners with jet access to 1,835 airports, with guaranteed availability. 30 May 21, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008

A318 Elite is on a Roll A Circle Around London P&WC Deliveries Triple Avanti Sees Sales Shift RUAG Eyes Needy Cabins Global Gets Even NICEr Embraer Beefs Up Support Honeywell ‘Virtual VFR’ Signature Europe Grows Gestair Seeks to Double Aero-Dienst Turns 50 Gama Doubles in Size All is Not Woe with Oil Ocean Sky is Aggressive

EBACE Show News - May 21, 2008

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