Completions/Mx Startup To Open in Basel

AMAC Aerospace is preparing to open a new business aviation completions, refurbishment and maintenance facility in Switzerland next August. The Swiss start-up company, founded by former Jet Aviation CEO Heinz Kohli, will be based at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, near Jet Aviation’s completions center in Basel. In late October, AMAC signed a 35-year lease on a 452,000-sq-ft site at the airport. Early next year, it plans to start construction of the first of three hangars–one of which will be large enough for widebody airliners, while the other two will be suitable for Boeing Business Jets and Airbus ACJs. The largest hangar is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2009. According to Kohli, demand for aircraft completions and refurbishment is not being adequately met by existing providers. He left Jet Aviation suddenly in March over what the Swiss group said was a difference of opinion in strategic direction with its new owners, the private-equity group Permira. Kohli said he is not constrained by a non-compete clause in his severance terms.