Jet Aviation
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| Founded | 1967 | ||||||
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| Fleet size | 200 | ||||||
| Destinations | Global | ||||||
| Parent company | General Dynamics | ||||||
| Headquarters | Zürich, Switzerland | ||||||
| Website | http://www.jetaviation.com/ | ||||||
Jet Aviation is a Zürich-based business aviation services company. One of the industry's largest, it was founded in Switzerland in 1967 and today is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). Aircraft maintenance, completions and refurbishment, engineering, fixed-base operations, along with aircraft management, charter services, aircraft sales and personnel services are provided by some 5,600 employees at 26 airport facilities throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North and South America. Jet Aviation's European and U.S. aircraft management and charter divisions jointly operate a fleet of more than 200 aircraft.
The late Carl W. Hirschmann established Jet Aviation in 1967, as a maintenance organization when he bought the former Globe Air hangars in Basel, Switzerland and opened the first maintenance facility for business aircraft in Europe.
Two years later, he expanded the company and entered a new line of business by acquiring the Pilatus maintenance and airline handling operations in Zurich and Geneva. Then realizing that customers may likely still require transport while their own aircraft are being maintained, he also began offering aircraft charter and management services to European and Middle Eastern customers.
In the 1970s, the company expanded its services to provide aircraft management and charter services for European and Middle Eastern customers. The first maintenance base outside of Switzerland was established in 1975 in Düsseldorf, Germany, and in 1979, a partnership was formed with a group of Saudi businessmen in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to operate an FBO facility in Jeddah. In 1977, Jet Aviation added outfitting services as a new line of business at its Basel operation and the facility has since then grown to become the largest independent completions center in world.
1980s brought further expansion to the company in Europe and the Middle East, but more importantly, Jet Aviation successfully entered the U.S. market to become the first global player in the business aviation industry. Since the mid '80s, the company bought existing FBOs in Boston/Bedford, Massachusetts, Palm Beach, Florida and added a FBO in Teterboro, New Jersey, in 1988 to serve the strategically important New York City corporate marketplace. The same year, Jet Aviation acquired Teterboro based Executive Air Fleet - the largest aircraft management and charter company in North America.
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