Two years after launching into third-party business aviation services with its $2.18 billion acquisition of Jet Aviation, US defense giant General Dynamics said today its four aerospace brands will merge into two: Gulfstream and Jet Aviation.
This means Midcoast Aviation, the St. Louis completions center bought by the Swiss company in 2006, will be renamed Jet Aviation from January 1.
From the same time, General Dynamics Aviation Services - a network of five service centers in the USA and one in the UK specializing in Gulfstream - will operate under the Gulfstream brand.
The move clears up what, for some, had been a confusing set of identities. Jet Aviation kept the 35-year-old Midcoast name because of its legacy in the market, but its logo had been adapted to include Jet Aviation.
Midcoast's St Louis facility was expanded with a new hanger in 2008, although four months ago it announced the closure by year-end of its site in Savannah, home of Gulfstream,.
St. Louis, which employs almost 1,000 people, is now likely to take on more work from Jet Aviation's Basel completion center in Switzerland, which is at capacity on narrowbodies as more specialist widebody airliner conversions come on the market. Basel is one of a handful of facilities able to handle larger Airbus and Boeing jets. Midcoast also does maintenance on a range of types, including Bombardier Globals and Challengers, Dassault Falcons and Hawkers as well as Gulfstreams.
GDAS was created as the result of acquisitions from Kimberly Clark in 1998 and BBA Aviation in 2001, the latter giving GDAS its Luton, UK site. Its other facilities are in Appleton, Wisconsin; Dallas, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Westfield, Massachusetts. The centers will continue to service other types and be run by Mark Burns, president of Gulfstream product support.
Joe Lombardo, executive vice president of General Dynamics and Gulfstream president, says the business has a service presence at 44 locations around the world and is growing to meet the demands of an increasingly international customer base. "We are investing to provide the best service wherever customers land."
Source: Flight Daily News
