Business aviation operator ExecuJet has taken over the Fixed Base Operations (FBO) at its Sydney Airport facility.
The FBO was previously operated by Universal Aviation and includes a passenger lounge, private meeting rooms and a customs and border processing area. The facility was refurbished about a year ago.
ExecuJet vice president for Asia Pacific Darren McGoldrick said the move to bring the FBO under the company’s control would support growth at Australia’s most populous city.
“The timing was right for both companies due to a retirement within Universal and we were keen to do something there,” MCGoldrick said on Wednesday.
“It has been an investment that we have made and now it is exciting that we get to now operate it. As an operator we were the largest customer of the the FBO so we are now controlling our own operation, our own destiny in that regard.
“As an operator we understand some of the issues that need to happen in a successful FBO as well and hopefully that gets rolled out for the benefit of all the customers.”
ExecuJet said the Sydney FBO would employ 20 staff, such as management, ramp coordinators, customer service agents and administration staff.
The company has about 100 people working in Australia across aircraft operations, pilots flight attendants, engineers, administration and sales. There were a further 50 more people working at its Asian bases, including in Bali, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore.
“From an aircraft management perspective across the Asia Pacific region, we’ve got 21 aircraft that we manage and operate on behalf of owners,” McGoldrick said.
“Of that, there’s nine that are available for charter.”
The expansion in Sydney comes as the company celebrated 10 years of operations in Melbourne this week.
ExecuJet’s base at Melbourne Essendon Airport is an FBO and also does maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) under Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Certificate of Approval, New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approval and is a US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 145 Repair Station.
ExecuJet is an authorized service centre for Hawker Beechcraft, Gulfstream, Bombardier and Embraer at Melbourne. It also conducts maintenance work at its Sydney and Perth facilities.
“We have been in business for a long time, we are experienced in managing and operating and maintaining aircraft,” McGoldrick said.
“Certainly I think the depth of our knowledge about the market, about the products from an operational and support and service level does mean that people can talk to us, we can offer that broad range of support for them and that’s what we do for our customers.”
