While corporate mergers often result in the downsizing, outsourcing or elimination of corporate flight departments, Chrysler's 1998 merger with DaimlerBenz is having the opposite effect on DaimlerChrysler Aviation. Formerly known as Chrysler Pentastar Aviation, the company is aggressively expanding on both sides of the Atlantic.

DaimlerChrysler Aviation's Pontiac, MI facility continues to manage the automotive giant's FAR Part 91 operations. There's also a renewed commitment to the company's other aviation businesses, including aircraft management, maintenance, avionics service and installation and air charter through its automotive air charter subsidiary.

As one of the region's leading aircraft maintenance facilities, DaimlerChrysler Aviation is the only independent, factory-authorized Gulfstream service center in the U.S. and one of only three independents worldwide. This has led to an extremely close working relationship with the manufacturer, according to DaimlerChrysler Aviation, Inc. President Tom Davis, adding that it allows his maintenance staff to be "at the forefront of knowledge about the fleet."

DaimlerChrysler's longstanding relationship with the factory goes even deeper, since the Chrysler Corporation once owned Gulfstream Aerospace. Chrysler, and now DaimlerChrysler, have also been major operators of Gulfstream for three decades. The current U.S. fleet includes a Gulfstream II, III, IV and two G-Vs.

Maintenance services are by no means limited to Gulfstreams, however. DaimlerChrysler performs maintenance on virtually all business jets, with a customer list that Davis says closely resembles the Fortune 100. Davis says reliability and stability are why customers keep coming back. "Customers know when their airplane comes in they're going to get it back when we say they're going to get it back," he says.

Another DaimlerChrysler specialty is avionics service and installation.

Officials say business is especially brisk for 8.33 radio upgrades, Satcom installations as well as software revision to EGPWS. The company also has a number of firsts, including the first HUD installation on a Gulfstream and a newly STC'd Gulfstream IV tail housing for a Satcom antenna as well as a DirecTV dish.

Aircraft management, not a major enterprise in the past, will also have a renewed focus. DaimlerChrysler has typically managed five/six aircraft at any one time, although Davis says they have the infrastructure to do more.

With the increased travel between Germany and Detroit, DaimlerChrysler is operating a four round-trip per week shuttle between Pontiac, Michigan and Stuttgart, Germany. Currently flown by a leased Airbus A320 which stops for refueling in Iceland, the aircraft will be replaced by an owned A319CJ in January which will make the journey nonstop.

Realizing the value of business aviation, DaimlerChrysler is also acquiring aircraft for the company's European flight operations. DaimlerChrysler Aviation GmbH has ordered two Gulfstream Vs, two Bombardier Challenger 604s and two Bombardier Learjet 60s. The new aircraft will be based in Stuttgart at a new hangar and maintenance facility under construction. Frank Stroesser is Davis' counterpart as president of the operation.

Commenting on the growth, Tom Davis said DaimlerChrysler executives "recognize that business aviation provides them a better way to get their business and jobs done".

By David Rimmer