Airbus is establishing a network of global service centers for executive and private operators of its ACJ family. Announced here at NBAA, the first members of this prestigious group include Associated Air Center (AAC), Jet Aviation, Qatar Airways and TAM Jatos Executivos. Airbus says it is soon looking to sign up a partner to serve the Pacific market also. The service centers will operate as single point of contacts to ACJ customers, offering a range of services from VIP FBO provision, to flight operations support and management, to maintenance and even sales. Richard Gaona, vp Airbus executive and private aviation, underlined the importance of the new network, saying, "When Airbus is asked for its [service provider] recommendation, we will lead customers only to these partner organizations."
Speaking for AAC, Dean Harton, president and CEO of parent Piedmont Hawthorne, said his company's network of 35 FBOs and six full maintenance centers in the U.S. would now be available to ACJ operators. In addition, AAC operates a system of "virtual maintenance centers" that can be dispatched to attend AOG situations at any location in the U.S.
Jet Aviation will offer a complimentary service (or "friendly competition," as Dean Harton remarked) to North American customers, as well as linking its various centers in Switzerland, the Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong. The center of gravity in the U.S. will be its established completions facility in West Palm Beach, plus its FBOs. Jet Aviation's U.S. president, Theo Stab, noted that his company would be able to offer aircraft management, charter, maintenance and sales service based on its 10-year existing relationship with Airbus.
In Latin America, Airbus will call on Brazil's TAM Jatos Executivos. TAM has a large fleet of 75 Airbus airliners in service and supported Airbus in its successful bid to supply the Brazilian Air Force with a new ACJ. TAM's Rui de Aquino noted that his company already provided FBO, charter and maintenance services across Brazil and was looking forward to adding the ACJ to its Airbus family.
The fourth auspicious member of the service center team is Qatar Airways, a pioneer of Airbus VVIP operations with virtually every type of Airbus aircraft in VIP service, alongside its regular airline fleet. For Qatar Airways, Stephen Vella noted that his airline had pioneered the concept of all-business-class operations with the A319LR, and is currently in the process of adopting new VVIP versions of the A330 and A340-500.
