Press Release

Issued by .

April 16, 2014

Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group (Marshall ADG) continues to expand its capabilities in business aviation through its newly created Aviation Services division under the leadership of managing director Steve Jones. Central to this is commitment to expand its MRO capabilities at its Broughton, North Wales and Cambridge facilities by taking on more aircraft types and expanding activity in special mission work. The Group is also in the market to make further strategic acquisitions that provide good synergies. In line with these aspirations, James Dillon-Godfray was appointed early this year to a new role as vp business development.

MRO activity covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, has so far focused on the Hawker and Beechcraft family, where Marshall Aviation Services enjoys authorised service centre status at Broughton, together with the Cessna Citation (500 series) at Cambridge, which Marshall has supported for 40 years. In anticipation of further work it recently moved its primary maintenance facility from 22 Hangar to 2 Hangar, enabling it to double its capacity for Citation maintenance to 60,000 sq.ft. For many years Marshall has worked on Bombardier's Global Express aircraft, primarily on green completions and special mission aircraft. Now for the first time, Marshall Aviation Services are offering full spectrum MRO support on the type to the wider retail business aviation market from its Cambridge facility.

The acquisition last September of Beechcraft's 50-year old flagship European MRO business, Hawker Beechcraft Limited, was pivotal to bolstering Marshall's commercial business. It welcomed in 230 additional talented personnel, including 28 design staff, to Marshall Aviation Services, taking the division's overall workforce to 400. This already puts MAS among the top 10 companies in Europe for business aviation support and solutions.

It has also given Marshall Aviation Services critical mass and a widened scope of activity such as aircraft completions and a dedicated state-of-the-art paint facility and paint design centre which can carry out custom designs to a wide selection of exterior liveries. Marshall Aviation Services Broughton holds the original HBC inventory of £3 million in parts. The site, updated several years ago, includes a modern FBO style environment, including private customer offices, workstations, customer lounge, prayer room and a dedicated customer services team headed by Stuart McNellis. Its hangars and workshops support MRO, aerostructures, avionics, design engineering, modifications and interior refurbishment.

Together with its March 2013 acquisition of charter and aircraft management company FlairJet, giving the company an Oxford base, revenues at Marshall Aviation Services will increase from £10 million in 2012/2013 to £60 million this year. Building on this, the goal for the Group, renowned for its work in military aircraft modifications supporting a wide number of aircraft and OEMs, looks to increase its civil/business aviation activity from 18% currently to 25%, says managing director Steve Jones, which is quite a sea change for an organisation which is predominant in the defence sector. New territories such as the Middle East and Scandinavia will also be pursued as the scope widens, Jones adds.

Marshall Aviation Services also embraces Cambridge International Airport, which in addition to a programme of summer charters and scheduled services to Verona by Etihad Regional Darwin Airline, is responsible for a successful FBO run by ExecuJet. ExecuJet has significantly grown its presence at Cambridge with both business jets and helicopters based there and available for charter. Short notice, 25 minute helicopter shuttles to The London Heliport in Battersea are also available for the first time utilising the Airbus Helicopters EC155s.

Additional operational approvals for FlairJet

Marshall Aviation Services' aircraft charter and management arm is represented by FlairJet, which took over the activity of the former Marshall Executive Aviation and combined the operations into one AOC at the end of June last year. FlairJet manages four aircraft – two Embraer Phenom 100s, one based in Bari, Italy, operated for a private owner and a UK based aircraft available for charter out of London Oxford Airport, where FlairJet's 20 staff, including pilots, are based. A Cessna Citation XLS and Bravo are based at London Luton to increase availability and competitiveness during the summer season. FlairJet offers training support on Embraer Phenoms and has an ongoing relationship with NetJets in support of their Phenom 300 pilot training. Recent operational approvals include MNPS for the Citation XLS, enabling FlairJet to operate to Iceland more cost effectively and P-RNAV approvals on both the Phenom 100 and Citation XLS. This is required for Amsterdam and enables FlairJet to take advantage of more efficient arrival and departure procedures at major European airports.

Aircraft brokerage activity and new Beechcraft sales off to a good start

Marshall's move into pre-owned aircraft sales and acquisitions in November 2012 with the launch of its JETability brand has had a good first year with a total of 10 aircraft sold. The first quarter saw sales of a Cessna CJ2+, an AgustaWestland 109E Power, and an Airbus Helicopters AS355N.

Separate from the pre-owned business is Marshall Aviation Services' exclusive role as sales distributor for UK, Ireland and Scandinavia for Beechcraft with a dedicated sales team led by sales director Howard Povey and Craig Lammiman as regional sales director (UK, Ireland and Channel Islands) who joined from Freestream Aircraft. They have ratified sales of three new King Airs to date since October last year. “There is a big resurgence of interest in this popular business turboprop and constant evolution of the King Air family with companies like Wheels Up in the US making it the aircraft of choice for their expanding fractional programme,” said Steve Jones.