Refitting a jumbo Airbus or Boeing for VIP transport is good business for Associated Air Center (AAC), the Landmark Aviation-owned Texas-based completion centre that is finding customers across the ocean.
“We're having good conversations with a number of important customers and potential customers. We're really happy with the way the show has grown and things are looking really well,” says Andrew Farrant, vice-president of marketing and communications for Landmark Aviation. Although he says the company's charter and management services, fixed-base and maintenance operations at 35 locations are also receiving interest, it is the work of AAC that Europeans know best.
“My take after being here for 24 hours is we're reasonably well known. Aviation is growing faster in Europe than anywhere else in the world and it’s evident in our business as well,” Farrant says. The value of flying out to set up the couches and display, as he says, is the "personal connection. It's a good opportunity to look someone in the eye, sit down and have a conversation.”
In the past 10 years the company has completed 15 Boeing Business Jets, 12 757s, eight ACJs, two 747s and two 767s.
The various offerings of Landmark have attracted Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, which is in a takeover bid to buy all the holdings. It may or may not get approval from the US government. “The deal has gone into the committee for foreign investment, and it's our contention that we want to let the process work,” says Farrant. “We're not in a position to speculate.”
Source: Flight Daily News
