A phenomenon that has happened quite under the radar is the consolidation of independent maintenance bases by OEMs. We have seen Dassault buy all the TAG and Execujet bases. Gulfstream now owns all the Jet Aviation maintenance bases. Cessna has removed ‘Authorized Service Facility’ status from a number of previous maintenance facilities, forcing many of them to exit the business and consolidating maintenance capacity in their factory-owned centres. The Manufacturers are increasingly trying to bring all maintenance back “in-house” in order to increase revenue from services. As the market for new aircraft sales gets more competitive and overall demand remains relatively flat, manufacturers are searching for other revenue streams to account for declining aircraft sales revenue.
The most direct effect of this is that there are fewer certified and approved maintenance bases, especially in Europe. This creates longer wait times for slot availability and backlogs, as well as adding time and expense to ferry your aircraft to farther away maintenance facilities. In addition, it leads to higher maintenance costs as there are fewer facilities to compete for work, and those that do are often owned by the same company. As an example, there are only three facilities in Europe that are Gulfstream approved facilities – Jet Aviation Basel, Jet Aviation Geneva and Gulfstream Farnborough. All of these companies are owned by General Dynamics which means they will not compete with each other on costs.
During your aircraft search, it is important to look at the maintenance bases near you to see what models they are allowed to service. If you know you want to purchase a certain model, take a look at where it can be maintained. The ease of maintenance throughout your ownership period is often overlooked, but this will have one of the most direct impacts upon your satisfaction. An aircraft that is grounded for maintenance is an expensive, and useless, asset. Your broker should be able to assist you with this and prepare you with the information needed.
A maintenance base location is all the more important in less developed aviation markets. The Middle East, South East Asia and Africa are large geographical areas, but they have little private jet maintenance infrastructure in place. We recommend aircraft that fit into the pre-existing network just to ensure an ease of operation for clients.
The USA is the exception to this rule. With a market that is six times larger than the next largest, it is both the biggest and most mature market. Maintenance is much more competitive in the USA as there are hundreds of facilities to maintain aircraft and owners have a greater comfort going to facilities that are not Authorized Service Facilities than owners outside the USA. The negative effects of the recent moves by the airframe manufacturers are muted in the USA, a stark contrast to their negative effects outside of the USA.
We believe knowledge is the best way an owner can have the most positive ownership experience. This is part of ownership logistics (the same as pilot availability, crew training etc.) that will affect your ownership experience.
