On the Record with THEO STAUB, PRESIDENT & COO, U.S.
OPERATIONS, JET AVIATION
Jet Revamps, Seeking More of U.S. Market
Two-thirds of Jet Aviation's business is outside of the U.S. Two-thirds
of the world business aviation market is in the United States. Jet
Aviation specializes in business aviation.
It follows that Jet, which is headquartered in Switzerland and
has more than 3,500 employees at upwards of 60 sites worldwide,
is working to boost its U.S. market share. The company is doing
so by implementing a new, decentralized organization.
"Closer to the client and more flexible decision-making,"
says Teterboro-based Theo Staub, who took over as president and
COO of Jet's U.S. operations earlier this year. The company now
has seven U.S. business centers, each with profit responsibility:
FBOs at Bedford (Mass.), Dallas-Love, Teterboro and West Palm Beach;
as well as Jet's aircraft charter and aircraft management businesses,
and the Jet Professionals aviation staffing unit.
"I didn't want to have a battleship in the United States,"
Staub says. "I wanted to have a fleet of speedboats.
"We are the only FBOs that can offer all the maintenance
and line services under one roof," he says. They are big speedboats,
in other words, and getting bigger. Plans have just been disclosed
to expand the Dallas FBO and, at Teterboro, Jet Aviation is bringing
in the U.S. Customs Service and leasing space to Air Routing International
and Universal Weather and Aviation.
Jet this past August created the position of senior vp for aircraft
maintenance & OEM development, and appointed Cessna, Gulfstream
and Raytheon veteran Gary Dempsey to the job, reporting to Staub.
Jet Aviation is at Booth 1581 here.
--Rich Piellisch
A DAL Expansion, Customs at TEB
Jet Aviation is expanding its FBO at Love Field, Dallas, improving
the DAL ramp to allow it to handle larger aircraft there.
Jet Aviation Dallas already has more than 193,000 square feet
of working space, approximately one-third of it taken up by
five hangars. Jet's Dallas facility is a factory authorized
Cessna Citation Service Center and is an FAA-certified repair
station for Hawkers, Learjets, Falcons and Westwinds.
A current focus at Dallas is RVSM. Jet says it expects to
do 50 or even 60 RVSM installations at DAL in time for the
FAA deadline in January 2005.
Jet Aviation is also, as of this month, hosting U.S. Customs
services at Teterboro, eliminating a situation where international
passengers had to be taxied to the Atlantic Aviation terminal,
resulting in active runway crossings, aircraft going in opposite
directions on the same taxiway, and a congested Atlantic ramp.
New York City-proximate TEB handles some 5,000 international
flights per year.
Off the Block
Jet Aviation never announced that it was for sale, but when
word got out (with the help of B/CA's Show News at
EBACE in Geneva last year), the firm's family-owned parent
acknowledged wanting to leave the business.
That's all in the slipstream now, as Jet said, officially,
late in January, that "after months of intensive negotiations
regarding a possible sale of the company, the shareholders
of Hirschmann Industrial Holding, Ltd have determined that
retaining full ownership of Jet Aviation is the best course
of action for driving the company's growth in the decades
to come."
"Our shareholders have decided not to accept any of
the proposals," said Hirschmann Group chairman and CEO
Thomas Hirschmann.
