Jet maintenance facility to open in 2nd quarter

Zurich-based Jet Aviation is scheduled to begin operations of its business jet maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services at the Macau International Airport during the second quarter of this year. According to the company’s website, the new MRO facility could begin operating as early as June 2016.
The facility, which won the exclusive ten-year concession last year from the Macau International Airport Company (CAM), will operate from an airport authority hangar under the title of “Jet Aviation Macau.”
The company plans to lease half of the new 8,000-square-
meter hangar in addition to 1,000 square meters of workshop and office space.
Jet Aviation will add its Gulfstream and Dassault Authorized Service Center (ASC) approvals to the site, and extend its European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approvals to Macau.
“We will be extending all approvals that we have from Jet Aviation Hong Kong,” John Riggir, vice president and general manager of Jet Aviation Singapore, told Aviation Week.
“Macau is really part of our Hong Kong footprint and gives us the option to put aircraft into Macau for longer-term maintenance projects,” added Riggir.
The new MRO facility will allow Jet Aviation to alleviate congestion at other airports in the region – particularly nearby Hong Kong International Airport – by providing maintenance, aircraft cleaning and parking services in Macau.
“Hong Kong can be a challenge for hangar space so we now can take care of that by having Macau supplying extra maintenance capacity,” Riggir told Aviation Week.
As reported by the Times last year, the demand for business jets in the Asia-Pacific area has grown substantially in recent years, and has been unaffected by the gaming downturn in Macau.
VistaJet announced in July that it would commence offering point-to-point services in mainland China using a Bombardier Challenger 850 business jet. The VIP charter company partnered with Apex Air, headquartered in Jiangsu Province, to provide services on its behalf.
Thomas Flohr, CEO of VistaJet, told the Times that, despite the gaming downturn, the company has “seen an increase in demand for VistaJet flights in [the] Asia-Pacific [region] with 2014 [presenting] year-on-year growth of 17 percent.”
“We expect the growth trend to continue,” said Flohr, but added, “Declining revenues could perhaps have an adverse effect on people considering whole aircraft purchases, as this requires intensive capital investment.” Staff reporter