Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI) opened its new European headquarters at the London-area Farnborough Airport last month. The operation will be led by JSSI president and CEO Louis Seno, who has relocated to the UK from the group’s Chicago headquarters.

The hourly cost maintenance provider has been active in Europe for 15 years and currently has 400 contracts on this side of the Atlantic. Seno told AIN that JSSI sees significant growth in the European business aviation market and views the UK office as a springboard for expansion into the Middle East and Asia.

JSSI bases technical service advisors in Basel, Cologne, Paris and Vienna who manage clients’ maintenance contracts in surrounding countries. The company is recruiting an advisor for the Middle East to be based in Dubai. It already has one in Thailand supporting Asian customers. JSSI sends its advisors on regular recurrent maintenance training.

Also to be based in the Farnborough headquarters, located in the main TAG Aviation terminal, is senior technical manager for Europe Tim Coggin and client services account manager James Carroll.  JSSI previously ran its European operation from a small office in Luxembourg.

In addition to power-by-the-hour engine support contracts, JSSI offers its Tip-to-Tail programs covering airframe, engines, APU and avionics, including scheduled and unscheduled maintenance for a fixed rate per flight hour. 

Chief administrative officer Susan Kerr said operators benefit from JSSI’s independent approach to managing maintenance. They have one point of contact to handle support for a fleet that could include several different types. And, if they are changing aircraft they can transfer account balances from the one they are replacing, holding money in the account between transactions.

With the exception of small and urgent line repairs, all maintenance work is conducted by factory-owned or -authorized service centers. “The difference is that JSSI looks out for the client’s best interests objectively,” Kerr told AIN. “And even if operators have their own in-house maintenance capability, they like the budget predictability.”

With business aircraft flying activity generally reduced in the wake of the economic downturn, JSSI can recalculate the terms of support contracts for operators who may not be flying as many hours as they have paid for. In some cases, they will even write support contracts covering as few as 10 flight hours per month.
On the eve of this week’s EBACE show, JSSI held a meeting of its customer advisory board here in Geneva. The company said it plans to do this annually in order to gather customer feedback on how its services can be improved.