Press Release
Issued by Textron Aviation Zurich Service Centre.
May 22, 2007
Jet Aviation Basel will soon break ground on a new wide-body hangar to add close to 35,000 m2 (377,000 sq ft) to the facility and expand its completions and maintenance capabilities. The new hangar will be large enough to simultaneously house an Airbus A380 and Boeing 787-8 as well as a number of mid-size aircraft. The company will invest CHF 35,0 million in the new hangar, located in the south zone of the EuroAirport, which will also house additional shops and ramp space. Opening is expected in spring 2008.
The new state-of-the-art infrastructure will free needed hangar space to handle the company's growing maintenance business. It will house sheet metal, composite, avionics and component repair shops, and a two-story office building to accommodate the company's engineering and interior design departments, administrative staff and additional customer offices. Upon opening of the new hangar, the company will move its wide-body and mid-size completions business to the new facility and use its existing eight hangars for its maintenance business and completions for the Dassault Falcon line.
To meet customer expectations and future demand, and to strengthen its position in the completions market for wide-body and mid-size aircraft, Jet Aviation will continue to invest heavily in its Basel operation. Just recently, the company completed a new 3,320 m2 (35,736 sq ft) hangar extension at the Basel facility.
"This substantial investment in new infrastructure gives us the flexibility to not only compete for new business, but to better schedule current and future workloads and to satisfy the expectations of our growing client base," says Norbert Marx, senior vice president and general manager at Jet Aviation Basel. Once the new hangar is completed, Jet Aviation Basel will have expanded to 80'000 m2 (861,000 sq ft) including nine hangars, shops, offices and ramp space.
Jet Aviation Basel is a world-renowned completions center. The Basel facility, established in 1967, today employs more than 1,300 professionals. The facility has in-house design and engineering departments, along with on-site cabinetry, upholstery, fiberglass and paint shops. The facility is capable of outfitting jets as large as an Airbus A380 or the Boeing 747-400 series and has already completed several Airbus 319ACJ, A320 and Boeing B737, B757, B767 and B747-400 aircraft. Jet Aviation Basel also provides aircraft maintenance and repair services to a wide variety of business jets. It is a factory approved service center by Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Dassault and Gulfstream. The location also holds a jet aircraft repair station rating by the FAA (Repair Station #QV1Y440K), and the EASA part 145 (#CH.145.0232) which includes 27 national aviation authorities.
