TAG Aviation and TAG Farnborough Airport are here (Stand 400) to promote enhanced support and customer service offerings across the group for business aviation clients. TAG is also highlighting the recently-completed refurbishment of the company’s the FBO at its main base in Geneva, Switzerland. Franck Madinger, TAG Aviation Europe president engineering and FBOs, told AIN “We did a complete refurbishment in the summer and have added space and more facilities for crew, and facilities for our passengers. We have put privacy and comfort first.”

Madinger said that the company has seen increased activity this year as it also broadens its engineering capabilities to include refurbishment, in particular utilizing a new hangar it has in Sion, in the Swiss Alps. “We are in the process of delivering a Global Express refurbishment…the aircraft was done in Sion for an African customer,” he explained. “And we’re doing a full refurbishment for Dassault of a Falcon 900LX.” These capabilities were added through an acquisition, “as part of our one-stop-shop strategy,” he added–the company bought an interior modification company at the beginning of 2014.

“We do heavy maintenance and have all the associated skills–we even have painting in Geneva and Part 21 was approved at the beginning of this year, so we can do very big modifications including satcom.”

Avionics modifications have long been a TAG specialty, and Madinger said the company recently signed a customer for another Pro Line 21 avionics upgrade, on a Falcon 2000EX. This will be carried out in early 2015. “Last year we became the first company to perform a Falcon 50EX upgrade in Europe,” he added. “We are also quite active on the Easy2 mod–Geneva has modified more than 45 aircraft since the beginning of the program, it’s a major modification.”

Madinger stressed however that the company would be “very cautious” about growing too much but he noted that “clearly the trend is towards bigger aircraft so we want to be able to respond to demand, to find more hangar space. In all out locations we have plans to develop.” He noted that Geneva and Farnborough (TAG Farnborough Engineering) were the company’s two heavy maintenance bases, with the rest of the “network” (Paris and Sion, for example) having mainly line maintenance capabilities.

“For this we are always talking to our customers–we have some specific line stations [for single large customers], one in Africa [Togo] and one in France. “We could do this in the Middle East too,” he noted. TAG does not have its own Middle East facility but Madinger said “We work with many partners there,” due to having many Middle East-based customers.

Another big focus for TAG Aviation has been greater capabilities to cater for AOG situations, so the company has bolstered its teams for this purpose and also has mobile repair teams.

Other activities in the TAG Group include a growing fleet of managed and chartered aircraft at TAG Aviation Asia, and in its European fleet, plus a range of enhancements at TAG Farnborough Airport, a popular destination for Middle East operators.

Charter a 757

TAG Aviation is now offering a Boeing 757-200ER for charter after it entered into a contract with TCS Expeditions and modified an aircraft to VIP airliner configuration. “It has leather seats and will be available in either a 58- or 72-seat configuration,” said Graham Williamson, TAG Aviation president Aircraft Management and Charter Services. He added that the contract has a term of six years starting in January 2015.

“We wanted to create a new product, something really special. It will also have high-end catering and Ku-band Wi-Fi [satcom].”He added that, “The intention is to grow the fleet, with a second and third aircraft through 2015 and 2016. The 757 has enormous potential to develop a new market.”