TAG Aviation Group (USA) has unveiled its plan to acquire Rockefeller-owned Wayfarer Aviation, the New York-based aircraft management and charter firm. Over the past three years, TAG says that, in terms of aviation, it has been pursuing an aggressive acquisition programme and sees the Wayfarer purchase as a key component in its business growth strategy in the US.\rWayfarer's director of marketing, Carole Helms, will now assume the position of vice president marketing and will be responsible for TAG Aviation's worldwide marketing activities. European Business Air News spoke to Helms at Wayfarer's White Plains headquarters about the nature of the task in hand. She said: "My responsibilities are to help create an integrated marketing plan for the whole organisation. We are going to take the TAG Aviation organisation as a whole - and that includes the Farnborough operations, the Geneva operations, San Fransisco and New York - and to a certain degree, alter the shape and the direction of the organisation. The idea is that we become one unit so that we're all working off the same page."\rA merger of this size rarely comes without a clear message to those around it. For Helms, this message is one of action versus inaction. She said: "We all talk a lot about the global business environment or the global economy. Well now we're not talking about it, we're actually doing it. And we're there to support companies who are doing business on a global basis because an awful lot of our clients now conduct their business globally and that is growing on a daily basis." She added: "I don't think anyone has made an integrated world aviation services company and it is our intention that whether you're in Geneva, Dubai or New York, you can make one phone call and have access to our entire fleet of aircraft. And while we certainly don't have it up and running today, I would imagine that in fairly short order, we will have it put together."\rIn addition, Helms stressed the point that there might not be a market-place at all if it wasn't for what she sees as the inadequacies of the commercial airlines. She said: "The commercial airlines continue to be fairly miserable to transact business on and they end up being our greatest advocate for there being a better way to get your business done." Carole Helms, it appears, has a healthy respect for her competition. She told EBAN: "There's no question that we compete on a daily basis with Jet Aviation and they're certainly a good organisation and a healthy competitor for us. But our organisations are very different and we know it is our role to distinguish ourselves from our competitors. "I think the other competitors that are becoming very important to us all are the fractionals, specifically EJA. As we see them grab larger and larger parts of the market share, it's important for us to examine our product line and make sure that what we create as a competitive product is in line with being able to beat the pants off them." \rAs for the timing of the acquisition, Helms says that Wayfarer intends to have shut up shop some time during the first week of October. That done, the merging companies will then plan their celebration and announcement at NBAA. The decision has already been made, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the two companies will now operate under the TAG umbrella. In this, Helms sees an initial hurdle but in the long run, much which is positive. She told EBAN: "We have some work to do with aligning their name with aviation in the US but in Europe there's no question that it's a very well known and a very well thought-of name.\r"We've been fortunate in this merger to work with a group of people who are very enthused about getting our management team and capabil-ities and so despite the fact that we'll be giving up our name, I think the individuals who've been behind that name will be a very strong force in the growth of the new company. \r"Our first order of business is to consolidate the brand and reinforce our identity around the world."