Three months after announcing a major expansion at three of its four primary maintenance locations, West Star Aviation has been acquired by Houston-based private equity firm The Sterling Group. Financial terms of the deal between West Star’s parent, Norwest Equity Partners, and Sterling were not disclosed.
The closing of the West Star deal also comes on the heels of Sterling selling its Lynx FBO chain to KKR-backed Atlantic Aviation. West Star operates four MRO facilities in East Alton, Illinois; Grand Junction, Colorado; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Perryville, Missouri. In December, the MRO provider announced plans to add more than a quarter-million square feet of space between East Alton, Grand Junction, and Chattanooga. The West Star footprint also includes 15 mobile repair bases and satellite MROs.
Sterling partner Greg Elliott has 20 years of experience in business aviation, having served as chairman or board member of Lynx and former FBO chains Encore, Trajen, and Landmark Aviation. “We believe that our experience coupled with West Star's industry-leading customer service capabilities will make us a powerful combination,” he said. “We are eager to help accelerate their growth plans.”
West Star CEO Jim Rankin added that Sterling brings an employee-focused approach to its business partnerships and that its general aviation expertise makes the firm a “perfect fit for West Star.” Sterling has more than $5.7 billion of assets under management.
Universal Weather and Aviation is donating its services to support humanitarian missions during the Ukrainian crisis, the flight-planning company said yesterday. Specifically, Universal Trip Support is waiving fees on trip-feasibility assessments, research, and consultation services, as well as ground-handling setup charges, for any mission classified as a humanitarian supply flight helping those displaced by the conflict in Ukraine.
“Millions of innocent people are currently being impacted and displaced by the geopolitical situation in Ukraine,” said Universal senior v-p of global trip operations Pete Lewis. “Like we saw throughout the pandemic and previous disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes, business aviation is stepping up to answer the call for help by sending much-needed medical supplies, food, and other basic necessities into neighboring Poland and Romania for Ukrainian refugees. Universal is committed to making those missions be successful.”
Universal Trip Support teams and flight planners can also help operators navigate the current airspace restrictions and best options for delivering relief supplies, as well as coordinating any needed tech stops as a result of airspace routing restrictions and working with local handlers for on-the-ground logistics moving supplies.
With more than a year in business under its belt operating from a 12,000-sq-ft hangar at Davidson County Airport (KEXX) in Lexington, North Carolina, Sky Aircraft Maintenance (SAM) is planning a 65,000-sq-ft expansion project. It’s one of a few expansion programs underway for parent company Sky Aviation Holdings, president Tom Conlan told AIN.
SAM recently secured a 40-year lease on four acres of land from KEXX, where it plans to construct two, 20,000-sq-ft hangars—one dedicated to aircraft maintenance and the other to avionics—and remaining space for offices and shops, including for paint, interiors, and woodworking. SAM also provides aircraft parts sales.
Conlan said he hopes to begin construction in July or August, with completion by year-end or early 2023. SAM will continue to use its existing 12,000-sq-ft hangar for a part-out operation.
The new facilities will serve two focuses at SAM: providing regular aircraft maintenance services to individual owners and operators, and expanding its maintenance and refurbishment business for legacy business jet models such as the 800/900-series Hawkers, Beechjet 400A/XP, Bombardier Learjet 60, and Cessna Citation V, Ultra, Encore, Bravo, Excel, and XLS.
“Business has just been outstanding,” Conlan said. “We’ve had four and five airplanes deep sitting on the ramp waiting to get in.”
The Russian business aviation industry is on the verge of collapse due to the EU and U.S. closing their airspace to all aircraft owned by Russians in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to industry analysts, this will lead to the decline of business aviation traffic in Russia by almost 85 percent and force business jets owned or controlled by Russian interests to switch to Asian and domestic routes. The move also threatens a wave of bankruptcies of Russian business aircraft charter operators and FBOs.
Amid the ever-growing threat of detentions of Russian-owned business jets by Western authorities, these owners are considering reregistering their aircraft from Western jurisdictions to offshore registries and “friendly” states such as Montenegro. While the latest sanctions apply to all Russian-owned or -controlled aircraft, regardless of where they are registered, it is unclear how authorities will determine aircraft ownership given the widespread use of anonymous shell companies.
Meanwhile, Russian business jet owners could soon see bans on repairs and insurance of their aircraft, as well as the supply of parts and components. These measures have already been implemented for Russian-owned airliners and could be extended to the business aviation sector.
Experts predict that the already approved sanctions will all but cut off business jet sales in Russia, which has historically been one of the largest business aircraft markets in Europe.
Metrojet’s MRO operation has increased its Gulfstream G650/650ER capabilities to include an 8C check following approvals from the FAA, Bermuda BCAA, Cayman Island CAACI, Isle of Man IoMAR, Qatar QCAA, and San Marino SMAR. Done every 10 years, the 8C check includes removal of the cabin interior for structural inspection, as well as landing gear overhaul and hydraulic and electrical systems inspections.
In addition, the Hong Kong-based business aviation services provider has received approval from the Vietnam CAAV for G450 8C checks, as well as B3 inspections for the Boeing BBJ737-700.
“Metrojet is dedicated to elevating our capacity continuously, to provide safe, international quality and cost-competitive options for customers to choose from,” said Metrojet MRO Hong Kong general manager Dave Yip. “The newly added Vietnam CAAV maintenance approval also assists Metrojet to support the growth of VN-registered business jets in the region.”
Transactions of preowned single- and multi-engine turbine helicopters surpassed 2019 and 2020 levels last year, with singles seeing more consistent year-over-year improvements and multi-engine aircraft experiencing upward pricing, according to industry data analyst Amstat.
In its report on the turbine helicopter market released yesterday, Amstat said preowned single-engine transactions in 2021 beat the 2020 activity by 25 percent and 2019 by 30 percent. Last year, transactions in this segment were up year-over-year in every month except January.
Preowned multi-engine turbine helicopters, meanwhile, enjoyed a 27 percent bounce last year over 2020 transactions and 12 percent over 2019. Amstat, however, noted that the monthly transaction performance was more up and down and activity in the fourth quarter was actually down year-over-year by 11 percent.
Available turbine-single helicopter inventories peaked in early 2021 and have been shrinking since, with availability down across all segments. The newer segment is down 47 percent year-over-year. Multi-engine inventories have continued their downward slope, maintaining a trend that began in 2016. Inventories are down across all age segments, with newer available helicopters 33 percent lower year-over-year.
Pricing has been uneven, peaking in early 2021 for single-engine helicopters but since falling to a 5 percent year-over-year drop, Amstat said. Conversely, multis have enjoyed a 15 percent year-over-year increase.
Aircraft parts supplier Avant Aerospace has acquired an inventory of Dassault Falcon 900EX parts and ground support equipment that will be offered for sale through West Star Aviation. Rotables, wheels, a starter-generator, and fire bottles are among the new parts acquisition.
A Tronair 5606-2 system hydraulic mule, jacks, power cart, tail stand, battery lift, wheel dolly, and tow bars are among the available ground support equipment. Also, Falcon 900EX and 7X tow heads are included in the sought-after 900EX equipment Avant has on hand through the inventory acquisition.
“These additional Falcon parts and equipment feature several high-demand pieces,” said Avant v-p Eric Kujawa. “Avant Aerospace is continually expanding its inventory and available equipment to better serve our customers.” The new inventory is in addition to other Falcon-related parts and ground support equipment available through Avant’s Cahokia, Illinois facility.
Sikorsky is exploring what’s next for its S-76D medium-twin turbine helicopter. Deliveries of new S-76Ds are all but moribund and the model is effectively out of production—per General Aviation Manufacturers Association data, zero were shipped last year and only a dozen were handed over between 2016 and 2020.
Meanwhile, parent company Lockheed Martin chose not to commit engineering resources to make the S-76D compliant with FAA crash-resistant fuel tank standards for new-production helicopters that took effect in April 2020, according to Jason Lambert, Sikorsky v-p for global military and commercial systems.
“The S-76D has a great safety record, but it does not specifically comply with this crashworthy fuel system regulation,” he told AIN. Lambert called the engineering resources associated with satisfying compliance “cost-prohibitive,” adding that “there is not a good business case” to do it. However, Lambert held out the possibility that production could be resumed offshore via “global licensing [with] third parties” and that, while the current design did not meet FAA regulation, it could be delivered to numerous other countries, noting that the first VIP S-76D was delivered to India.
Lambert stressed that Sikorsky is maintaining an active spares production line for the S-76 at the Stratford, Connecticut plant, where the company manufactures all the dynamic components for its civil and military helicopters.
Requires inspection of the bleed air duct and surrounding structure, adjustment of the ductwork if clearance is below the minimum required, and correction of any bleed air duct and surrounding structure damage before further flight. Prompted by reports of insufficient clearance between the surrounding structure/skin of the aircraft and select bleed air ducts that supply the wing ice protection system in the rear fuselage on the aircraft. Without sufficient clearance, the high pressure (HP) shroud could interfere with the surrounding structures and possibly compromise the HP ducting shroud's capability to provide bleed air leak routing, which could result in a bleed air leak being undetected. A significant undetected bleed air leak could expose the surrounding structure to heat stress.
Supersedes and retains certain requirements of AD 2021-06-06, which mandated repetitive fluorescent penetrant inspections of the pilot collective stick and grip assembly and revising the rotorcraft flight manual. Since that AD was issued, the pilot collective stick and grip assembly has been redesigned. Thus, the updated AD requires installing the improved pilot collective stick tube and adds a terminating action for the repetitive inspections. This AD also prohibits installing any pilot collective stick and grip assembly unless certain requirements of this AD are met.
Requires inspection of oxygen cylinder serial numbers, removal of certain serial-numbered oxygen cylinders, and replacement of affected oxygen cylinders with new or reworked oxygen cylinders. Prompted by a finding that the flight crew and passenger oxygen system’s refill and capillary lines may have been contaminated by sealant and cotton fibers that could restrict the flow of oxygen.
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