The ASA Group has opened new offices in Indonesia and Malaysia, expanding the scope of its services to the VIP aviation market. ASA Group services include arranging charters, security, concierge and ground handling services, over-flight and landing clearances and in-flight catering.
Last year, ASA Group opened an office in Shanghai at Hongqiao Airport. And recently the company appointed Tom Mulvey as director of operations, based at the Hong Kong office.
China Business Aviation Group (CBAG, Booth H420), founded in 2010 by business aviation veteran Jason Liao, chairman and CEO, is continuing its efforts to boost the region’s business aviation industry and become its leading services provider. Here at ABACE yesterday it announced agreements with engine-care specialists Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI, Booth H418), flight crew employment agency ACASS (Booth H217) and business aircraft sales and charter company China Hongly Aviation Group.
TAG Farnborough Airport is at ABACE highlighting the importance of the Europe-Asia business aviation industry, and its role in facilitating that. The airport is 40 miles from central London, and recently has invested more than $135 million in infrastructure.
Hangar and office space totals more than 240,000 sq ft; FBO amenities include concierge service. TAG Farnborough Engineering offers aircraft maintenance, and visitors can stay overnight in the TAG Group’s Aviator Hotel.
Honeywell’s Sky Connect Tracker III combines voice, text and flight-tracking technologies into a single system designed for helicopters. Sky Connect uses the Iridium satellite communications network, and operators can use Sky Connect to make voice calls at the same time as sending text messages and tracking the helicopter’s position anywhere in the world.
Flight Explorer, exhibiting at the ABACE show here in Shanghai for the first time, claims to offer much more than flight tracking, although that is one of the company’s core products. It can track aircraft equipped with Iridium satellite communications systems anywhere in the world, and provide a private feed of that data to customers who operate those aircraft. Flight Explorer (Booth H525) is a Sabre group company, and also provides flight tracking via global radar feeds of aircraft flying in airspace controlled by the U.S.
Business aviation consultant Brian Foley, president of Brian Foley Associates, used an intriguing metaphor to explain the issues effecting Chinese business aviation: “Imagine if there was a 22-percent tariff on imported cars, drivers had to ask permission to drive a day in advance and they could drive only to specified cities via a suboptimal route with few services. Driving to a city not on the approved list would require a ‘navigator’ to ride along.”
With its 25-year heritage of supplying major Chinese airlines, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, with avionics and cabin system products, Rockwell Collins (Booth P417) is no newcomer to the Asia Pacific region. But ABACE is a business aviation show, and the company is ready for it, with innovations from the cockpit through the cabin for both business jets and helicopters.
Hong Kong-based Metrojet (Booth H100) has partnered with Zhuhai Hanxing General Aviation Co. to expand its business jet maintenance business into Mainland China, the companies announced here at ABACE 2013 yesterday. Located in a 15,000-sq-ft hangar at Zhuhai Airport, Metrojet Hanxing now offers the same full range of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services–in addition to authorizations for the same list of OEMs–as that at Metrojet’s facility at Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok International Airport.
Symbols are important, especially in China, and Avion Pacific Ltd. (Chalet 370) has chosen a precious 20-carat diamond to symbolize the preciousness of each of its 20 years of operation as a general aviation service and support center in China.
Boeing Business Jets (Chalet 140) is pulling double duty here at ABACE 2013, showcasing the BBJ, the VIP version of the Seattle-based airframer’s 737 airliner, while simultaneously celebrating the 40th year of Boeing commercial sales in China and the delivery of the 1,000th Boeing airliner to the market, a 737-800 purchased by China Eastern Airlines.
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