Jet Aviation received the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) of the Year Award at the 2019 Aviation Business Awards ceremony held earlier this month in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With approximately 220 executives and professionals from every part of the Middle East’s aviation supply chain in attendance, the award event took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
The Aviation Business Awards are held annually to recognize and celebrate aviation and aerospace industry achievements within the Middle East during the past year. This year’s gala event supported 14 award categories in total, including the airline, airport and cargo sectors, as well as the support services industry. In the Fixed Base Operator of the Year category, Jet Aviation’s Dubai FBO was selected by a panel of industry judges for its outstanding ability to support customers through its services, innovation, design, investments and demonstrable customer satisfaction.
“I am very proud and honored to accept this award on behalf of Jet Aviation and our teams of dedicated handling professionals,” said Philippe Gerard, senior director of Jet Aviation’s Dubai FBO.
“It is through their unwavering commitment to the highest standards that we ensure the safety and well-being of our customers as they travel throughout the region and around the globe.”
Jet Aviation established its award-winning FBO at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in May 2005. To offer greater flexibility to customers in Dubai, it opened a second FBO at Dubai World Central (DWC) in November 2017. The company currently operates the largest FBO network in the Middle East and continues to demonstrate its strong commitment to the region, the industry and its global customers through its unique ability to support comprehensive business aviation services.
In May 2018, Jet Aviation expanded its global network and portfolio with the acquisition of Hawker Pacific, a leading provider of Aircraft Sales, Civil MRO, and aircraft Fleet and FBO Services. The acquisition added seven FBOs and 14 MRO facilities to the Asia Pacific region — including a heavy maintenance facility for Helicopters in Fujairah and a repair shop for rotor blades in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone.
A few months later, in September 2018, the company established ground-handling services at Prince Abdul Mohsin Bin Abdulaziz Regional Airport in Yanbu, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where Jet Aviation also operates FBOs in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Medina. These expansions were followed by acquisition of the KLM Jet Center businesses in Amsterdam and Rotterdam in October 2018, further strengthening Jet Aviation’s position as a leading FBO service provider in Europe.
Hardy Butschi, Jet Aviation’s VP Regional Operations, Middle East and GM of Dubai, added, “It’s a great honor to have the quality of our global FBO network acknowledged by the industry. Awards such as these play an important role in promoting industry commitment to safety, quality and continuous improvement, which we at Jet Aviation are fully committed to.”
Jet Aviation currently operates 35 FBO locations globally, 20 of which, including both Dubai-based FBO facilities, received IS-BAH Stage Two Registration last year at MEBAA 2018. The company has a number of expansion and refurbishment projects underway globally.