Banyan Air Service grows with KFXE

Craig Chin, avionics installation coordinator for Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Banyan Air Service is excited. The full-service FBO and maintenance facility (Booths C11638, C8816) now houses in its avionics bay what he hopes will be the first of many Challenger 604s. It’s in for a Rockwell Collins FANS 1/A and WAAS LPV avionics upgrade. “This airplane is used internationally,” said Chin, explaining that with new avionics mandates in place and coming, the airplane needs the upgrades so that it can be used the way its owner always intended. “What we are trying to do is make a niche for ourselves as the place to come to have your Challenger series aircraft upgraded with FANS 1/A,” he told AIN.

“At our customers’ request, we keep track of their airplanes and let them know when maintenance is coming up on their aircraft, to give them a chance to get it scheduled in advance,” explained Charlie Amento, Chin’s boss and director of maintenance for Banyan. “This Challenger’s owner is being quite efficient, bringing the airplane in for several maintenance checks at once, as well as the avionics upgrade. It’s in for its 12-month and 24-month inspections, as well as the 600-hour engine and APU inspections,” he said.

What does Amento recommend for his customers as far as meeting upcoming avionics mandates? “We recommend doing the upgrades sooner, rather than at the last minute,” he answered. “It isn’t going to get any less expensive, and particularly when inventory gets low and/or shop time gets filled up, it could get costly to owners.”

In other news, Banyan is stepping up customer service options at its Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) location. Following the opening of the new U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility, new airport air traffic control tower and physical expansion of its footprint on the airport, the FBO is preparing to offer unscheduled maintenance.

“Right now we are working on providing our customers with a drop-in maintenance team,” said Amento. “When people come in with maintenance problems right after a flight they won’t have to wait for scheduling. This team is dedicated to just that kind of immediate need. We’ve got a mobile maintenance truck, and though the drop-in team right now is just for the local area, we are looking at evolving it to become a true mobile AOG team,” he said.

Finally, Banyan Air Service staff is especially proud of the outreach work it has done in the past year. For the past five years the FBO has been the staging point for several non-governmental organizations that have been rebuilding Egbe Hospital in rural southwestern Nigeria. Seventeen containers of material for building and equipping the hospital have been packed and dispatched from Banyan’s hangars. Today operating suites are ready and staff are being trained on site. The Egbe project is close to company founder Don Campion’s heart. His parents helped to build the original hospital in the 1950s.

“It was huge to build a hospital in the middle of the jungle. It shows you what's possible,” Campion said. The FBO has also staged relief efforts from its Fort Lauderdale FBO complex following hurricanes in the Bahamas and Haiti.