It’s been an exciting year for Gama Aviation according to company executives. Little more than a year into its relationship with private aviation provider Wheels Up, the company is seeing an uptick among all its business lines in the U.S. The company’s core aircraft management business has seen growth of 20 percent over the past year-and-a-half.
“Since 2008 that had been a tough business to be in and we finally got that back up to a trajectory that’s good for us,” said Thomas Connelly, president of the global aviation service provider’s North American operations. “We’re bringing in very good solid managed clients.”
Gama now offers maintenance at four locations around the country, including Connecticut, Teterboro, Las Vegas, and Van Nuys, Calif. “We’re in the right spots where we need to be for the AOG and Wheels Up support,” noted Connelly, adding the company’s 80 maintenance staff among the four facilities provides AOG and line maintenance for GAMA’s own managed fleet, some fractional providers and of course the Wheels Up fleet, which will number 37 aircraft–27 King Airs and 10 Citation Excels –by the end of the year. It’s in the operation of the Wheels Up fleet that the company has seen the largest share of growth, causing it to nearly double its maintenance staff.
“The size of the task that was in front of us in September of last year cannot be underestimated,” said Gama group CEO Marwan Khalek during a discussion at the company’s booth (2625). “You talk about bringing into service 37 aircraft, 150 pilots performing the level of work that we are doing at the moment for the Wheels Up program, that’s akin to starting a commuter airline, and to achieve that while still running a business I think is great testament to the spirit that we have within Gama.”
Looking beyond the excitement of the new program, Gama gave a brief assessment of its operations around the world. “In Europe we see steady improvement,” noted Khalek, “but not on the level of the U.S.” The company has also seen signs of growth in Middle East, “although it’s slower than we would like it to be in our Far East business.”
