JET AVIATION PROFILE
Category: Corporate Aviation Company Profiles
Author: Dave Higdon
Jet Aviation service encompasses the world.
Taking a definitive name often advertises a trait the company can’t reach – like Villa del Mar for a housing development on the plains of Iowa or giving an airport an “International” moniker because passengers and freight can connect to an international gateway.
After its 1967 inception as a corporate name, the phrase “Jet Aviation” grew to mean far more than a term for a type of flying. In 35 years, Jet Aviation has grown into an influential presence throughout the world of business aviation.
Today, the company’s scope, reach and quality make it a leader among corporate aviation service providers.
That’s an across-the-board statement in a global community – a position few others enjoy. And fewer companies can still boast of Jet Aviation’s international credentials: A company started in Switzerland that expanded globally, Jet Aviation moved its headquarters to West Palm Beach, FL, in the United States, and yet conducts more than half its business in Europe. Clearly, that profile qualifies Jet Aviation as one of corporate aviation’s most-unique players.
Swiss Traditions of Quality and Precision
To understand the success of any company, it helps to understand something about the philosophy of its founders, or to gain insights into why it exists – in other words, something of its roots. And while it may sound like a stereotype, there’s something to be said for that form of character typing when you see the match between a company’s history and that stereotype.
Given what I knew of Jet Aviation from business flights in the U.S., it came as little surprise to learn that the company’s ancestral home is Switzerland. Founder Carl W. Hirschmann opened Jet Aviation in 1967 after acquiring the old Globe Air hangar in Basel and the new enterprise quickly established its growth pattern and expansion in an ever-broader array of business aviation enterprises. For example, in 1969 the company took over the handling and maintenance facilities of Pilatus AG in Zurich and Geneva. And within three short years the company added aircraft management and charter operations to its mix of corporate aviation services.
Before it was even a decade old, Jet Aviation took its first step toward a fully international operation with the 1975 acquisition of a maintenance base in Dusseldorf, Germany. Eventually, the company added five more technical facilities inside Germany: Munich, Saarbrucken, Kassel, Hanover and Cologne.
It was in 1977, aged 10, that the company read the growing demands of clients for quality completion and modification services by adding custom-interior design and installation, as well as refurbishing and upgrade modifications to its inventory of quality services at its Basel, Switzerland, operation.
Two years later, a partnership formed with a group of businessmen in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia led to the opening of Jet Aviation’s first Mid-East Fixed Base Operation in Jeddah, providing handling for corporate and private aircraft, and in 1982 Jet Aviation crossed the Atlantic to open a Washington, D.C. office as a preparatory step to entering the U.S. market. Later it expanded further with the acquisition of FBOs in Bedford, MA, Morristown, NJ, Denver, CO, and in West Palm Beach, FL.
The acquisition of Executive Air Fleet (EAF) based in Teterboro, New Jersey, followed in 1988. At that time EAF was the largest aircraft management and charter company in the United States. In the same year the Aero Service FBO, located at Teterboro Airport, was integrated into the Jet Aviation Group.
In 1996 Jet Aviation opened a new facility in Singapore and in 1999 added its facility at Dallas Love Field, which offers comprehensive aircraft maintenance, aircraft charter, management, sales, and a full range of FBO services. And Jet Aviation’s expansion and evolution has
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