ACI Pacific Is Bringing the First BBJ
To Serve Asia, It'll be Based in Guam

Asia's first available Boeing BBJ will enter service at the end of November serving a region centered on Guam if the plans of ACI Pacific pan out.

The U.S.-registered aircraft will be offered by a joint venture between ACIP and Japan's Nissho Iwai Corp, whose interests include steel, food products and aviation -- including the agency for Boeing Japan.

ACIP is the new, separately owned offshoot of Florida-based Aerospace Concepts, which specializes in aircraft management, flight operational services and completions consulting.

"There has been a total lack in Asia of first-line aircraft maintained to U.S. standards, under regulations and with U.S. flight crews," says ACI Pacific president and CEO Terry Habeck. "U.S. companies looking for aircraft there want to know it is operated to U.S. standards, under U.S. law, and to U.S. security regulations."

Guam, being a U.S. territory, makes this possible.

Thus Habeck, former general manager of Toyota's flight department, has arranged a two-year lease of a U.S.-registered BBJ to be based in Guam. ACIP will operate and maintain the aircraft from Guam, and Nissho Iwai will be responsible for marketing. Japanese companies, as well as U.S. firms, are expected to be key customers.

Habeck's plan is to sell not so much fractional ownership shares in the aircraft as partnerships and block hours. The BBJ will be considered sold out when it has racked up commitments of 800 hours.

"We will sell partnerships in the next BBJ while leasing the first," Habeck told Show News. "We expect to sell one a year over the next three years."

Habeck, who will sell and operate the aircraft under the name Share Jet, says partnerships differ from fractional ownership in that they are for a specific aircraft, not a fleet of them. Japanese companies in particular, he says, have become used to sharing certain assets, so partnership is not a strange concept.

Another factor working against fractional ownership in Asia is the geography: centers are several hours apart, making deadheading between fractional missions a losing proposition. But under a partnership, a customer can book the aircraft ahead of time if it is available. If not, a standby Gulfstream IV will be offered, Habeck promises.

ACI currently manages and operates two GIVs and a GV out of Guam, and plans to introduce maintenance and parking as well.
"It costs up to $50,000 a month to park or hangar a business jet in Japan," said Habeck, and another $8,000 to 10,000 per landing. In addition, operators of J-registered aircraft have difficulty finding Japanese-approved maintenance centers overseas.

His answer? N-registered business jets, kept at Guam-a U.S. possession just more than three hours' flying time from Tokyo. There, ACIP is building a second hangar that Habeck expects to fill with maintenance operations and resident aircraft in the not-too-distant future.

Habeck is here at the show at the BBJ exhibit (Booth 3001).

By John Morris