Story ID: 397 Royal Jet Deliveries.doc
Royal Jet Doubles Fleet Expansion Plan
By: Peter Shaw-Smith
Caption: Abu Dhabi-based operator is to invest $700 million to take its fleet size to 20 aircraft.
Word Count: 602
Royal Jet, the aircraft charter arm of the UAE Presidential Flight Authority that is co-owned by Abu Dhabi Aviation, yesterday announced a $700 million investment to boost its fleet to 20 aircraft by 2020. This would almost doubled its fleet. Today, Royal Jet operates 11 aircraft: six BBJs, two Gulfstream G300s, two Bombardier Learjet 60s and one Bombardier Global 5000.

At a press conference here at the MEBA show, the Abu Dhabi-based company also said it had postponed for at least another year a decision on whether or not to select a business jet version of Bombardier’s delayed CSeries aircraft.

Capt. Patrick Gordon, appointed Royal Jet acting CEO in October, said the decision on which aircraft manufacturers to work with for the remainder of the fleet renewal program was still under consideration. The MEBA press conference did nothing to clear up months of speculation about which bizliner will ultimately replace the existing BBJs as the main component of the Royal Jet fleet.

Royal Jet nevertheless announced that it was “renewing” its collaboration with Boeing to take delivery of two new BBJs in the near future. Capt. Steve Taylor, the outgoing CEO of Boeing Business Jets, said Royal Jet’s “recent order” for two more BBJs would be delivered next year.

Royal Jet is also considering aircraft from Airbus and Gulfstream for future acquisitions. “We still have a very good relationship with Gulfstream; Airbus is still in the mix and at the present time we have enough airplanes coming now through the end of 2016 by the time our green aircraft are out of completions that that really we don’t need to make that decision for probably another year,” Capt. Gordon said.

He reported that the company recently took delivery of a new Bombardier Learjet 60 XR and a Global 5000 business jet in October and November respectively. A second Global 5000 arrives in January to be followed by another Learjet 60 XR by May.

“While we were initially expecting to receive the first deliveries of the Bombardier aircraft in the first part of 2016, due to the tremendous support from the manufacturer, we have been able to take delivery of the first aircraft much earlier than planned,” said Capt. Gordon.

The Learjet 60XR carries six passengers and is also being operated as part of Royal Jet’s medevac division. The Global 5000 takes 12 and can be reconfigured to sleep seven.

“We will deliver the second G5000 in the coming weeks and the Learjet 60 XR hopefully in the first four months of 2015,” said Khader Mattar, regional vice president, sales, Middle East and Africa, Bombardier Business Aircraft.

“I don’t think it’s sensible to be saying now what we are going to be buying four years from now,” said Gordon. “The CSeries is still in the mix for all of these decisions as well. It all depends on how things develop over the next few years. We really don’t want to make any more decisions until we get these aircraft absorbed that we’re working on now.

Gordon said that the new 2020 target represented a shift from former CEO Shane O’Hare’s vision for Royal Jet. “I think we changed the direction of the company a little bit. When you set your goals, if you set too low a hurdle you can achieve it and cross it, but you have to set a higher hurdle. Our target is 20 airplanes. We think we can do it and the majority of them will be in [the] larger class of airplanes.”