Switzerland-based business aviation services group ExecuJet Aviation, which is exhibiting at the Singapore Airshow for the first time (Booth D87), is set to significantly boost its presence in the Asian market during the course of 2014. The most prominent example of this expansion is the company’s new FBO at Bali International Airport in Indonesia, but it is also growing its fleet of managed aircraft in this part of the world and increasing its maintenance capability.
P.T. ExecuJet Indonesia, which is a joint venture between ExecuJet and local partner P.T. Dimitri Utama Abadi, is gearing up to move to a new general aviation terminal in Bali during the next two months. This will give the FBO about 10 times as much space as it occupies in the existing building, with a surface area of 34,000 sq ft and three separate lounges. The Bali airport company is to build a pair of new 27,000-sq-ft hangars adjacent to the business aviation enclave’s 690,000 sq ft of apron.
ExecuJet has relocated Gary Forster from its FBO in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to run the new operation. ExecuJet Asia managing director Graeme Duckworth explained that its Indonesian joint venture is running the new terminal on behalf of the government-owned airport company. The group also has bases in China, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.
Duckworth is now seeking to recruit a director to lead ExecuJet’s aircraft management activities in Asia and his plan is to centralize these activities in Singapore. Next month, a new Bombardier Global 6000–for the exclusive use of its owner–is to join the managed fleet in Singapore. Meanwhile, ExecuJet Australasia is offering a new managed aircraft for charter from Wellington, New Zealand–the first Gulfstream G650 available in the region. The Sydney-based division’s managing director Darren McGoldrick told AIN that his team are increasingly cooperating with colleagues across the Asia Pacific region to generate more aircraft management and charter business. It has three managed aircraft based in Perth and three more in Sydney.
In Malaysia, ExecuJet has received European EASA Part 145 certification for its maintenance facility at Kuala Lumpur’s Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport. “There are quite a number of EASA-registered aircraft in the region,” Duckworth explained. The facility is a Bombardier authorized service center and also provides limited Gulfstream warranty service.
ExecuJet Australasia operates authorized service centers for Bombardier, Gulfstream and Beechcraft in both Sydney and Melbourne. There is also an FBO in Sydney run for the group by Universal Aviation. The group has line maintenance facilities in both Perth and Wellington, where there is also an FBO run in partnership with Capital Jet Services.
“Over the past four years we have probably doubled our level of activity just in the Australasia market,” said McGoldrick. “A lot of it is driven by rising charter demand and the maintenance work that goes with this.” A significant part of the increased demand for private flights has come from wealthy Chinese travelers.