Don Campion and Jerry Holland are about to change the face of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE)–again. This time the two men are working on a north side expansion including the last 20 acres of developable property immediately adjacent to the airport.
“We’ve been at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport since 1979, and I give full credit to Holland Builders for our successful formula,” Campion, CEO and founder of Banyan Air Services, told AIN. “Holland built a lot of the properties we serve and will build the eight hangars and satellite FBO planned for the north side expansion.” Campion expects Holland Builders to break ground on the hangars and FBO buildings in the first quarter of 2017.
The need for the expansion is evident, according to Campion. “We’ve watched our customers grow from operating piston aircraft to large jet aircraft. The new hangars can accommodate Global Expresses and G650s.” Banyan Air currently manages some one million square feet of real estate around FXE. About 300,000 sq ft are occupied by Banyan, and the remainder is occupied by aviation businesses that support Banyan and its customers.
In other news, the company is adding more authorizations from Latin American governments for servicing and repairing aircraft registered there. It is currently an authorized repair station for 11 different countries in South and Central America.
“Some of our sales force are originally from Latin America, and they help to make our clients from there more comfortable with the maintenance experience,” explained Greg Laabs, director of maintenance for Banyan. “We work hard to help them with avionics upgrades.” It isn’t always simple swap-outs, as some of the newest avionics that are STC’d for aircraft in the U.S. may not yet have been certified in the country where the aircraft is registered. “We work to help the customer solve these issues,” he continued.
As for ADS-B and FANS upgrades, Banyan is helping to educate south Florida operators, with the hope that it will inspire clients to start the upgrades before deadlines loom. The FBO hosted two FAA NextGen events in 2016 that helped prepare, educate and save attendees money on their ADS-B, FANS, EFIS and IFE upgrades. The September event included Aircraft Electronics Association representatives answering questions about NextGen mandates, as well as experts from Rockwell Collins, Garmin, and FANS training provider Kobev International.
“We are finding a lot of interest in the Garmin 345 as an inexpensive ADS-B solution for Beech King Airs, Pilatus PC-12s and even Cessna Citations,” said Matthew Schepers, director of MRO sales for Banyan. “Knowing what we know–that we need to be equipping some 700 aircraft of the U.S. fleet per week if we want to make that 2020 deadline–I think what we are doing is still not enough. I feel like there are customers who think that pricing may still drop. But what we are seeing is that parts availability lag times are beginning to increase. In some cases we are already seeing more than 60-day lead times on ordering parts for installations.”
Laabs echoed Schepers’s concern. “I remember living through the RVSM transition,” he said. “We’ve got a good workflow of regular customers, particularly the Hawkers we are known for being good with. But we are reaching out to increase the number of Challengers and larger aircraft, including the Falcon 2000 and the GIV. We know we can service those customers well.”
On the subject of large jets, Schepers proudly pointed out that the company’s FANS STC for the Boeing 727 has been completed. The company is also developing an anti-lock brake STC for Beech King Airs and Pilatus PC-12s using the Advent Aircraft System GPS/digital anti-skid braking system.
