EBACE Show News - May 22, 2008 - (Page 18)

EBACE 2008 DC Aviation Expects a 40-Aircraft Fleet The merger of German business jet operators DC Aviation (formerly DaimlerChrysler Aviation) and Cirrus Aviation occurred in March this year and the new company, DC Aviation, is now part of Cirrus Group Holdings. ‘D’ can now stand for Daimler and ‘C’ for Cirrus—neat. “The DC Aviation name is well known and respected so we thought it would be better to keep it rather than choose a new one,” said Dieter Heinen, DC Aviation’s president and CEO. Heinen says that DC Aviation is now the leader by far in Germany with its amalgamated fleet of 29 aircraft, set to grow to over 40 by year’s end. The long-range fleet will then consist of three Airbus A319s, four Gulfstream G450/G550s, three Global Express XRSs, one Global 5000 and a Challenger 850. The medium/long range aircraft will number one Falcon 900EX, eight Legacy 600s, and four Challenger 604/605s. The mainly intra-European aircraft fleet will consist of seven Citation XLSs, three Gulfstream G150s, one Challenger 300 and eight Learjet 40s/60s. Most of the aircraft will be available for charter. The company’s philosophy is to grow its long-range widebody fleet to cater for growing demand. It plans on adding more ACJs and A318 Elites in the very near future. The number of long-range corporate jets will rapidly outnumber the shorter range aircraft. “We are in talks regarding ordering more Airbus ACJs and A318 Elites and a few more Global XRSs,” says Heiner. We are more or less concentrating on the long haul, which from a profit point of view is of much more interest to us. We decided not to employ VLJs within our current operation, and would only go into this market under a separate AOC, and a separate lower cost-structured company to make it profitable.” Heinen also confirmed, “We are going to internationalize our activities more. We already have a sales office in Moscow with several aircraft located there. We are going to open an FBO in Dubai—partnered with a very well known UAE family—in the second half of this year, and are currently finalizing con- DC Aviation’s Dieter Heinen. Premier Approves Midcoast Falcon Work them to Honeywell in Phoenix, Arizona, for -4 modifications and then replacing them on the aircraft, along with changing out exhaust nozzles and making minor modifications to instrumentation and systems. The East St. Louis, Illinois-based Midcoast Aviation has result is a Falcon 50Dash4 that can fly 300 to 600 nmi been named an authorized modification center for further at 0.80 Mach than a stock aircraft. Premier Aviation’s Falcon 50Dash4 conversion. The The upgrade doesn’t change the 3,700 pounds upgrade involves removing the aircraft’s existing takeoff rated thrust of the TFE-731-3 engines, but 3,700-pounds-thrust TFE731-3 turbofans, sending -4 turbofans have a substantially higher flat-rating, thereby improving hot-and-high takeoff and climb performance. In addition, maintenance intervals increase to 2,500 hours for MPI and 5,000 hours for CZI, resulting in lower MSP rates. Falcon 50Dash4 easily meets Stage IV noise standards. The -4 conversion, however, requires the engines to be at Honeywell for 45 to 60 days. And aircraft modifications, which include replacing the ITT gauges, modifying the bleed air system and fitting new exhaust nozzles, will take an additional two weeks once the engines have returned to Midcoast Aviation. Basic price for the conversion is $2,305,000. But, if your -3 engines are due for CZI inspections, the price can drop to $1,605,000 million, according to Ken Goldsmith, Jr. of Yankee Pacific and Robert Rasberry of West Star Aviation, Sam Haycraft, evp maintenance operations, West Star Aviation (l); the partners who developed the 50Dash4 Mike Coate, svp sales and marketing, Midcoast Aviation and conversion STC. Jim Swehla, evp sales and marketing, West Star Aviation. Two-Thirds of the Performance Improvement Offered by Falcon 50EX at One-Third the Upgrade Cost. tracts. We already have a small FBO in Stuttgart, and are thinking about the possibility of a joint venture with a partner in Moscow, although we still have to decide on which airport. It’s very difficult to find the right partner at Vnukovo. “We are looking at eastern Europe—if you look at OEM delivery data you see that dozens of aircraft will be delivered to Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union. Another emerging market that we have to look at is India, where business aviation is becoming more important, and appreciated. We have already spoken to people there and we will have to make a decision within the next two years. “We are EASA 145 certificated and prefer to do all our own maintenance to control quality and keep the money in-house. We are currently working on a strategy of spreading to new locations in Europe to offer maintenance for specific aircraft types, but this is not yet finalized. “DC Aviation is a preferred partner to Lufthansa Private Jet and we are looking for a permanent contract. Negotiations are ongoing. We currently do lots of flights for them and would like to continue this. Most of our flights are intra-European sectors using Citation XLSs and Learjets, but from time-totime we do get booked for a long haul flight.” DC Aviation is at Booth 280 here. —Mike Vines 18 May 22, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EBACE Show News - May 22, 2008

EBAA Bestows Awards Honeywell APUs Gain DayJet Not Hurting Eclipse Airbus Cabins in China Lisa Flies Its Akoya Single P&WC Service Boosts AMAC Aerospace Debuts FirstCall Telemedicine First Lineage to Prestige The TBM 850 is All New A Far Larger DC Aviation Midcoast for Falcon Work Tailwind Offers CRJ200 Jet Aviation for Utah

EBACE Show News - May 22, 2008

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