Jet Aviation is a

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

-based provider of

business aviation Business aircraft are aircraft typically used by companies and corporations to transport people or goods related to the needs of said businesses. Most business aircraft are general aviation aircraft variants of propeller aircraft, piston or ...

services. Founded in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in 1967, it provides aircraft management, aircraft sales,

maintenance The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...

, Government Programs, Staffing, FBO, Completions (aircraft interiors), and charters using its fleet of more than 200 aircraft. Since 2008, Jet Aviation has been a subsidiary of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

and employs over 4,500 staff across

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, and the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

History

Carl W. Hirschmann established Jet Aviation in 1967 as a maintenance organization when he bought the former Globe Air hangars in Basel, Switzerland, and opened the first maintenance facility for business aircraft in Europe. Two years later, he took over Pilatus maintenance and airline handling operations in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. He also began offering aircraft charter and management services to European and Middle Eastern customers.

1970s

During the 1970s, the company expanded its operations to the European and Middle Eastern markets, including charters and aircraft management, establishing its first overseas maintenance facility in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

in 1975. Two years later, the company introduced outfitting at its Basel facility. In 1979, it began FBO operations in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

1980s

Since the mid-'80s, the company bought existing FBOs in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

and Palm Beach,

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. In 1988, the company added an FBO in Teterboro, New Jersey, and acquired Teterboro-based Executive Air Fleet.

1990s

Jet Aviation, Basel, and the three U.S. FBOs in Boston/Bedford, Palm Beach and Teterboro were expanded. In 1994, Jet Aviation was granted the right to expand its airline handling services in Zurich and Geneva to provide services to scheduled airlines and

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...

carriers. It opened a maintenance and FBO facility in Singapore in 1995.

2000s

In October 2005 Jet Aviation was acquired by the Permira Funds, which marked the end of 38 years of family entrepreneurship. Under new ownership, in March 2006, the company announced its acquisition of

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

-based Midcoast Aviation, one of the leading maintenance, repair and overhaul, modifications and completions companies in North America. After almost 40 years as part of the group, Jet Aviation sold its airline and cargo handling division in Switzerland on November 6, 2007, to Dnata, the largest supplier of air travel services in the Middle East. Since December 2007 Jet Aviation has also provided line maintenance, defect rectification, and AOG services at Moscow's

Vnukovo International Airport Vnukovo, formally Vnukovo Andrei Tupolev International Airport (named after Andrei Tupolev) ( rus, links=no, Внуково, p=ˈvnukəvə) , is a dual-runway international airport located in Vnukovo District, southwest of the centre of Moscow, ...

. In January 2008, Jet Aviation acquired U.S.-based maintenance and completions company Savannah Air Center located at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. In Spring 2008, Jet Aviation and

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

-based Deer Air, signed a joint venture to operate an FBO and line maintenance facility at Beijing's Capital International Airport. On November 5, 2008, the company was acquired by U.S.-based

, headquartered in

Falls Church Falls Church City is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is part of both Northern Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area. As of 2020, it has ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. As part of General Dynamics, Jet Aviation operates as an independent business unit within the General Dynamics Aerospace Group.

Business Jets

Established in 2002, Business Jets Limited is a branch of Jet Aviation operating in the

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

area. Based at

Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport is an international airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok in western Hong Kong. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or Chek Lap Kok Airport, to distinguish it from its predec ...

, it provides chartered passenger services using its fleet of one Bombardier BD-700 and two

Gulfstream G550 The Gulfstream G550 is an American business jet aircraft produced by the General Dynamics' Gulfstream Aerospace unit in Savannah, Georgia, US. The certification designation is GV-SP. A version with reduced fuel capacity was marketed as the G50 ...

aircraft.

References

External links

Jet Aviation
{{General Dynamics General Dynamics General aviation Airlines of Switzerland Airlines established in 1967 Swiss companies established in 1967 2008 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Basel Permira companies