AMAC Aerospace Inaugurates Brand New Widebody Hangar at EuroAirport Basel HQ
AMAC Aerospace Switzerland today, 14th September, formally inaugurates its third maintenance and completion hangar for wide-body aircraft at its EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg headquarters. The opening of the new state-of-the-art 8’200sqm hangar is ideally timed as AMAC gets to work on their backlog for its completions and refurbishment work. Moreover, the new facility will be the catalyst for the company’s entrée into providing maintenance for wide-bodied aircraft capability it plans to introduce from early 2013. AMAC gained European EASA Part 145 approval to undertake heavy base maintenance on Boeing 777 series (2010) and the Airbus A330/A340 Series (2012) and is expecting to receive B747-400 / B747-8i approval later on this year. In May AMAC was approved by Boeing as a Boeing Warranty Service Center .
AMAC Aerospace is expanding its workforce, currently at 550 employees and shall marginally grow over the next six months, with the continuous expansion of our workforce in various work disciplines. The new hangar, identical in size to AMAC’s second hangar which opened in 2010, can accommodate aircraft as large as the Boeing 747-8i, Boeing 777 and Airbus A340.
Kadri Muhiddin, CEO and Group Executive Chairman, together with Mr. Bernd Schramm, COO and Mr. Mauro Grossi, CFO form the executive management of the group and will later this evening welcome some 400 industry guests and customers from all over the world. Together with company employees, he will preside over a special opening ceremony at the new hangar. Mr. Muhiddin will take the opportunity to highlight that AMAC Aerospace, now in its fifth year, fully intends to capitalise on its success serving a strong international customer base, by building up its activity in aircraft maintenance and to also expand the charter business.
“We have done phenomenally well in winning completion, refurbishment and maintenance work contracts to the point that we have a secure and stable workload until 2014 and at present we are in dialogue for work beyond 2014” said Kadri Muhiddin. AMAC Aerospace handled numerous projects in 2011 and will deliver in 2012 a B777, several ACJ’s and BBJ’s refurbishment projects.
“Now in our second phase of growing the business we are focusing on building up the maintenance side of the business. We are also very enthusiastic about our new activity supporting the Pilatus PC12-NG single engine turboprop in the lucrative Middle East market,” he added.
The inauguration of the new Basel facility comes just one week after AMAC launched a 1,500sqm hangar at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport in Turkey, where from January 2013 it will be providing maintenance support for the versatile, high-speed six-seater PC-12NG turboprop.
AMAC Aerospace was appointed a fully authorized and exclusive sales distributor in the Middle East at the beginning of 2012. Its territory covers Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Yemen, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey. The company is embarking on a pro-active marketing strategy to promote the sale of the PC-12 (NG) starting with AMAC Aerospace Turkey, which shall encourage this unique aircraft in the region.
Its sales strategy is to offer potential purchasers detailed business analysis services including fuel consumption studies, operational cost predictions, and maintenance schedule plans in order to support an informed purchase. It is anticipated that this intelligence will be of particular interest to air taxi services and corporate fleet inquiries.
AMAC participated for the first time at the Airex Show in Turkey last week and next on the aviation show calendar is MEBA in Dubai (December 11-13) where AMAC is participating at Chalet A20/ Stand 622. It will also display the PC-12NG there in conjunction with Pilatus.
Privately-owned AMAC already offers an extensive range of services serving the corporate aviation fraternity, specializing in base maintenance, refurbishment, complex modification and completion work. Founded five years ago, AMAC Aerospace is managed and headed by Executive Chairman & Group CEO Kadri Muhiddin, Group COO Mr. Bernd Schramm and Group CFO Mr. Mauro Grossi. Currently, its business is split 60:40 between VIP completions and maintenance work and its 21’500sqm hangarage facilities in Basel has the capability to accommodate four wide-body and four single-aisle large jets, plus lighter business jet types.
