Global business aviation support giant Jet Aviation has been expanding its facilities and services over the past few months, while also announcing new certification qualifications from the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC). Yesterday afternoon, the company announced it received accreditation from IBAC for meeting International Standard for Business Aviation Handling (IS-BAH) accreditation at 20 facilities in the U.S. and EMEA, including its FBOs in Dubai (DXB and DWC) and Jeddah, Medina, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

IS-BAH accreditation is based on a safety management system that models the structure and format of the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operators (IS-BAO) and establishes criteria for the best handling systems, processes, and practices to ensure FBOs meet rigorous safety and security standards, according to Jet Aviation (Chalet A19/20).

“Two years ago, we announced that we had earned IS-BAH standard registrations at 11 of our facilities,” said Stefan Benz, Jet Aviation senior v-p of regional operations. “Today, we have achieved stage 2 at nearly double that number.”

In addition to the Middle East FBOs, Jet Aviation also announced the IS-BAH certification of its EMEA facilities in Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland; Berlin, Dusseldorf, and Munich, Germany; Vienna, Austria; and Singapore. In the U.S., Jet Aviation FBOs were IS-BAH certified at the following airports: Washington Dulles, Virginia (serving Washington, D.C.); Teterboro, New Jersey (serving New York City); Bedford, Massachusetts (serving Boston); Palm Beach, Florida; Dallas and Houston, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; and Van Nuys, California (serving Los Angeles).

Jet Aviation recently expanded its operational footprint in the Middle East, receiving authorization from Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation to provide ground handling services at Yanbu Prince Abdul Mohsin Bin Abdulaziz Airport. Jet Aviation Yanbu operations will provide passenger and baggage handling, immigration and customs clearance, transportation, hotel, and catering coordination, refueling, and aircraft cleaning to all business aviation customers in the region.

In addition, the company will provide 24/7 support for employees of Saudi Aramco, the country’s nationalized petroleum company based in Dhahran, as they transit through the airport.

Jet Aviation Saudi Arabia is a long-time joint venture with partners in the kingdom and now operates four FBOs in the country, starting with Jeddah in 1979; Riyadh in 1983; Medina in 2012; and Yanbu in 2018. The Jeddah facility holds Saudi Arabian and U.S. FAA approval for line maintenance and AOG MRO services for business aircraft.

“We have experienced increasing demand for passenger assistance at Prince Abdul Mohsin Bin Abdulaziz Regional Airport and have expanded our service offering to ensure clients receive properly coordinated ground handling service that meets their needs,” said Khaled Al-Ghamdi, Jet Aviation’s in-country general manager.

As part of its expanded service capability, Jet Aviation recently completed C-checks on two Gulfstream GVs at the company’s Dubai location. The concurrent 192-month heavy inspections were combined with service bulletin work to address double engine changes, minor refurbishments, and structural corrosion repairs. Both of the GVs have been redelivered to their respective separate customers.

“Two projects of this magnitude at once is a considerable undertaking that requires great skill and organization,” said Hardy Butschi, vice president of regional operations in the Middle East and general manager of Jet Aviation Dubai. “Thousands of man-hours were dedicated to completing the two projects in a timely manner to both customers’ satisfaction."

Jet Aviation has been operating a maintenance facility and FBO in Dubai since 2005. The company’s maintenance shop is a D-1-rated non-destructive testing facility and can perform eddy-current testing, fluorescent penetrant inspections, and ultrasonic testing. “Customers appreciate our experience, expertise, and flexibility with large inspections and regularly take the opportunity to combine scheduled maintenance with other service offerings,” said Butschi.

In other news, Jet Aviation held the grand opening for its new widebody Hangar 3 at its Basel, Switzerland facility on November 21. The 93,646-sq-ft/8,700-sq-m structure at EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg was designed to meet increased demand for bizliner completions and refurbishments and can support several wide- and narrowbody projects simultaneously. With a wooden arch structure, the ceiling is high enough to accommodate a Boeing 747 on jacks, while the hangar's extended nose box will allow it to hold two widebody aircraft at the same time. The project also included 2,000 sq m of adjoining shops and office space along with a 5,000-sq-m ramp expansion.

“We have a long history of handling major modifications and completions at Jet Aviation, and we continue to invest in the latest technologies that support the highest quality and safety standards for our customers,” noted group president Rob Smith. “This hangar demonstrates our ongoing commitment to Basel and the region and is a tribute to our past and future success.”

Finally, Jet Aviation has announced today it has signed a preferred FBO service agreement with Memmingen, Germany-based Excellent Air, which operates Europe’s largest fleet of Cessna Citation CJ2s as well as several Citation XLS models. Yesterday, Excellent Air received IS-BAH Stage 2 registration.

Oliver Bergsch, Jet Aviation v-p of sales management for EMEA and APAC, said, “We are delighted to partner with Excellent Air and look forward to welcoming their customers to our facilities in Berlin, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Geneva, Moscow, Munich, Vienna, and Zurich.”