After establishing its reputation as a VIP airliner completion specialist, AMAC Aerospace (Stand A24) has diversified both its aircraft services and portfolio of subsidiaries—growth the Swiss company is showcasing at MEBAA 2022. Meanwhile, the world’s first VIP ACJ350 is undergoing completion at its Basel headquarters, as are a trio of ACJ and BBJ narrow-bodies, with more green inductions scheduled for next year.
AMAC’s growth in the aircraft services arena includes “diversifying our outlook regarding special requests,” to facilitate more customized engineering solutions in its completions and refurbishments, said COO Bernd Schramm. He cited satcom and self-defense—AMAC is a channel lead partner for OEMs in both product categories—as two such installations, the latter represented by laser-based directed infrared systems to counter portable surface-to-air missiles.
Its expanding completion and modification offerings dovetail with the continued growth of AMAC’s VIP airliner MRO business. “When there’s a fairly long maintenance downtime, we are able to offer turnkey solutions for minor modification refurbishments inside the cabins as well,” Schramm said.
AMAC has become a maintenance center for wide-body aircraft, having hosted as many as five 747-8i wide-bodies in its facility at one time, and has also seen rising demand for work on ACJ330s and BBJ 777s, Schramm said. But he resisted the notion that wide-body MRO represented a specialty of the house.
“I see it as something that happened because customers are satisfied with what we do,” he said, adding that regardless of aircraft category, “Every customer gets the same focus, the same attention.”
Schramm pointed to Hanger Five, its large-cabin business jet MRO facility in Basel, as evidence of this customer-centric approach; Since its opening in March 2021, more than 300 maintenance inputs have gone through Hanger Five.
Activity at its MRO facility in Bodrum, Turkey has also been “very strong” this year, propelled by a combination of VIP and airliner maintenance, and AMAC plans to begin building a second wide-body hangar at the location next year.
Meanwhile, the outfitting of the first VIP ACJ350 for a U.S. client is proceeding in Basel, with redelivery scheduled for the first quarter of 2024. An ACJ320 Neo, and BBJ Max 8, and Max 9 are also in completion, and a Max 7 is slated for induction pending the model’s certification.
Boeing awaits U.S. Congressional action to waive or extend the FAA’s late December deadline for certification of both the Max 7 and Max 10, after which they, like all future transport aircraft, will require next-generation crew alerting systems. Boeing believes the deadline will be waived, ensuring all Max models share a common alerting system, and that entry into service of the last two proposed Max models won’t be further delayed.
Additional completion projects for the new year include a BBJ Max 8 and ACJ320 for autumn inductions. The projects all require earlier design specification definition and component orders, as lead times for items like seats, IFE equipment, some electrical parts, and soundproofing “are getting longer and longer,” Schramm said.
AMAC also refurbishes VIP aircraft, and anyone following the preowned market knows aftermarket demand for executive airliners has been high, transactions which often presage refurbishment activity as new owners remake the cabins to their own taste. “We’re receiving more inquiries now for refurbishments after secondhand purchase,” said Schramm, but a spike in orders “has not hit us yet.”
And while AMAC expects to see increased completion activity in 2023, primarily on the narrow body side, it doesn’t anticipate a big bump in orders industry-wide.
“When we talk to Boeing and Airbus, we don't hear or feel an expectation that there will be an expected increase in VIP aircraft sales,” Schramm said. “We are still staying around in the six to eight [orders annually] per OEM.”
Some of AMAC’s forthcoming cabins could be outfitted for low-earth-orbit broadband connectivity via StarLink’s constellation. “We are ready to install the system, but there are delays in product readiness,” said Schramm, and he noted AMAC has not been able to evaluate the system’s performance, or received final price quotes. But, he added, “If it delivers what they promise, it will be a good alternative to the traditional Ka- and Ku-band systems.”
Expansion and diversification underlies AMAC’s subsidiary portfolio, as well. JCB Aero, its French composite aerostructures manufacturer, saw a drop in commercial aircraft work in the aftermath of Covid, but responded by branching into marine work, building interior structures for yachts, and now that end of the business is growing as commercial aerospace work rebounds.
This year AMAC acquired UK-based Gamit, whose digital data and technical records management software it has long used, and which it believes can have much wider application in the Part 121 commercial sector, in addition to supporting AMAC’s own increased Continuing Airworthiness Management Organization maintenance activity.
And expanding its own footprint in the Middle East region, AMAC will open an office in Riyadh in 2023.
At MEBAA, the company has a score of team members on hand meeting attendees, including Schramm; Waleed Muhiddin, director of Business Development & Marketing; and top representatives from JCB Aero, Gamit, and AMAC’s Bodrum MRO facility.
“We definitely like to meet our local customers,” said Schramm. “Whether from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, or Jordan, our focus will be on this customer.”