Petters Aviation is in negotiations with Airbus and officials in Minnesota to take over a former Northwest Airlines heavy maintenance facility in Duluth to perform completions and servicing work on Airbus corporate jetliners by year's end.
A subsidiary of Petters Group Worldwide, an investment company that owns Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines, Petters Aviation last month purchased five additional Airbus A318 Elites. It became the first US customer for the type with a single order last October.
Airbus, which has more than 80 orders for A320-family customised aircraft, delivered the first completed Elite, a corporate or head-of-state version of the A318, to charter operator Comlux in Geneva last month.
The airframer has been looking for additional completions help with the Elite due to high demand. Airbus currently has five completions centres for its VIP aircraft, two in the USA and three in Europe. Completions capacity for VIP A320-family aircraft is 13 a year, which the company is trying to boost to 20 a year within two years.
The Duluth facility, specifically designed for A320 maintenance and built for Northwest in 1995, has been idle since August 2005, when mechanics went on strike. The airline went into bankruptcy the following month.
Petters Aviation president T Jay Salmen says he is working with "potential strategic partners" with which to launch the operation, including existing Airbus completions company Lufthansa Technik.
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Charter operator Comlux has received the first customised A318 Elite |
Source: Flight International
