Article Posted on : - Aug 20, 2008

NEW DELHI (BNS): The aviation industry is eagerly awaiting merger of two giants that is expected to give a much needed fillip to the aircraft maintenance sector. General Dynamics, a major American defence conglomerate commanding a firm hold in aerospace business, yesterday announced its plan to buy Swiss business aviation company Jet Aviation in a $2.25 billion deal.

Jet Aviation is headquartered in Zurich has more than four decade of experience in flying operations. It has a wide network – over 5500 employees, and offices in Americas, West and East Asia. It provides maintenance, completions and refurbishment, engineering, fixed based operations, along with aircraft management, charer services aircraft sales and personnel services. The company also operates a fleet of more than 200 aircraft.

General Dynamics, which also manufactures Gulfstream private jets, is hoping to augment its capacity in the business aircraft sector after the merger. It has a huge employee base of 86600 people earning revenue of $29.5 billion.

Gulfstream, acquired by General Dynamics in 1999 has become its flagship brand. The revenues have gone up in the recent years witnessing a boom in the private jet industry. There are six Gulfstream service centers in the world, most of them in the US. The only one outside the country is in the UK.

But the company's growing market is in Russia, China and India. It is becoming difficult to bring the planes back to the facilities in US and UK to work on them. The company hopes that with extended network of Jet Aviation, it would be able to handle business in almost all the corners of the globe. The new markets are the places where the revenue is. It is expected that the sector would grow in the coming years despite a slight down turn in civil passenger traffic due to soaring oil prices.

The business jet travelers in India, China and Russia would also be relieved as their aircraft would be handled right at the doorsteps instead of taking them back to the facilities in UK or the US. The merger is good news for the business aircraft market in which Gulfstream commands a special place.