Jet Aviation

What It Is: A division of public company General Dynamics’ Aerospace group, Jet Aviation provides charter/management services, FBOs, completions and refurbishment, and MRO globally. The company also handles aircraft transactions.

How It Grew: In 1967 Carl Hirschmann bought a defunct charter airline’s hangars at Basel Airport in Switzerland to provide maintenance to business aircraft. Called Jet Aviation, the company claimed to be Europe’s first such operation. The 1970s saw it add aircraft management and charter operations; a joint-venture FBO in Saudi Arabia; and completions and refurbishment. (Jet Aviation presented the first VIP-outfitted aircraft—a Convair 880—at the 1977 Paris Air Show.) 

While growing its European maintenance and FBO network, Jet Aviation expanded into the U.S. in the 1980s, acquiring FBOs in Teterboro and Morristown, New Jersey; Denver; and Boston. In 1988, it purchased Executive Air Fleet, then the largest charter/management company in the U.S. In the following decade, Jet Aviation added more FBOs (including ones in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Singapore); a flight-crew staffing business (Jet Professionals, 1996); a branded fleet of Gulfstreams for U.S. charters (1997); and a preowned aircraft sales operation (1999). Founder Hirschmann, who retired in 1990, passed away in 1995. 

Expansion of Jet Aviation’s global network continued in this century’s first decade, highlighted by a new U.S. headquarters at Teterboro; new FBO locations in London, Hong Kong, and Dubai; the purchase of U.S.-based Midcoast Aviation MRO and completion center (2006); and corporate ownership changes, with General Dynamics buying the company in 2008.

Jet Aviation’s expansion in this decade has included new FBO locations in Houston; Medina, Saudi Arabia; Berlin; Vienna, Austria; Munich, Germany; Los Angeles; Nassau, Bahamas; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The company also acquired large-cabin charter-management firm Avjet in 2016; and purchased Hawker Pacific and its Asia-Pacific facilities in 2018.

What It Offers:

Charter/Management. About 200 aircraft under management, many available for charter; Privileged Travel block-charter jet card available in the U.S.

FBOs: Some 40 locations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

Completions and refurbishment. More than 200 completion and refurbishment projects performed at Basel facility to date.

MRO. Provided in the U.S. and globally from hubs in Basel, Singapore, and Dubai.

Preowned aircraft transactions. More than 60 conducted in 2018.

Recent News: On July 1 David Paddock succeeded Rob Smith as Jet Aviation president.
 

FAST FACTS:

Founded: 1967

HQ: Basel, Switzerland

Aircraft Services Revenues (General Dynamics): $2.096 billion (2018)

Employees: More than 4,800

President: Dave Paddock

Website: jetaviation.com