Leading business aviation services company Jet Aviation announced yesterday that it has appointed former Bombardier Aerospace president and Gulfstream executive Peter Edwards as its chief executive.
Edwards gave his first interview to Flight Evening News and was in a buoyant mood on the eve of his first EBACE show as Jet Aviation’s new chief executive.
“This is a great time in the history of business aviation. It gives us the opportunity as an industry to reset the baseline of what we do. We’re in a long period of sustainable growth that we have not had before. This means we can stabilise long-term planning and strategy.”
Edwards believes his former role puts him in a strong position to develop Jet Aviation. “The great focus on the OEM relationship is central to the Jet Aviation model, we put tremendous focus on that. We have a good understanding of what they expect and need and want to ensure we align ourselves with that. We aim to give OEMs the best support in the world. We spend a lot of time focusing on that and working with them to find out what that means to them.”
This relationship building with OEMs has already paid dividends for Jet Aviation’s Basle facility. This year the Basle completions centre has ramped up its slice of the French airframer’s Falcon completions to 20 from four in 2006. “The relationship with Dassault is very important relationship to us and we will continue to support their programmes and add what we can to their growth,” says Edwards.
He says the company is unlikely to take its US subsidiary Midcoast outside existing model, but believes there is a strong likelihood that it will develop its fixed-base operation capabilities, particularly in the Middle East. He adds: “There is a shortage of good standard FBOs in the region, and there is a huge call from business aviation for such services in the way it is growing. We have a clear intention to be part of that plan.”
Source: Flight Daily News
