Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI) is in the midst of its best sales year yet, as the Chicago-based maintenance service provider continues to develop new services, build on existing ones and enter new markets.
JSSI (Booth 2065) is coming to NBAA this year with expansions in its JSSI Parts business and Asset Monitoring Platform (AMP), both of which were rolled out last year, as well as with new offerings. JSSI is further expanding its coverage footprint by growing its helicopter business, dipping its toe into the regional aircraft market and adding coverage programs for new models that include the Dassault Falcon 8X and Honda Aircraft HondaJet.
“JSSI is really evolving from a company that has been known as providing maintenance programs to the industry to something much broader,” said president and CEO Neil Book. The new services come as JSSI looks to develop products that enhance its maintenance programs, as well as tap into a vast amount of data the company has collected as a result of those new products, he said.
JSSI, which introduced its JSSI Parts business during last year’s NBAA show, this year expanded that effort from an entity that buys and sells parts to include the acquisition and parting out of whole aircraft. The company already has acquired two Learjet 60s and a Challenger 601, and Book said the company has “a ferocious appetite for these type of acquisitions when they make strong economic sense for our business.”
The parts business has already grown 300 percent in 2016 from its beginnings in 2015 as the company works with original equipment manufacturers and second and third-tier suppliers to build up a parts base that can be used for its maintenance programs, as well as sold on the open market. “Our parts company…is the fastest growing business unit inside JSSI. We’re very excited about it,” Book said. “We’ve learned a lot. We are going to continue to invest in this space.”
He believes the business has gotten off to a strong start because JSSI has 1,800 aircraft on cost-per-hour maintenance programs, which provides the ability to forecast its parts needs. The company also has long-time partnerships that it can leverage for supplies, sales and even warehousing.
JSSI has been working with its maintenance providers and other vendors to house the parts, but has plans to lease a warehouse in Chicago to provide more storage. The new location also likely will house the parts team.
JSSI also is expanding the capabilities of its Asset Monitoring Program (AMP), a web-based tool that enables banks to monitor aircraft enrolled in JSSI programs. Since the program’s release, more than 20 banks have actively used the system to manage aircraft they have either leased or financed. Book said the company is preparing to release what he calls AMP 2.0, which will provide real-time information on flight hour activity and provide a five-year view of upcoming maintenance events and the anticipated cost of these events. “In case of a default, or if they have to repossess an aircraft, they understand what the maintenance expense exposure is as well as other data points,” Book said. The program will continue to evolve for banks, but he added that it will be a tool that operators and brokers can take advantage of as well.
The use of this data, Book added, represents the future direction of the company. JSSI has collected “a massive amount of data” that he believes can provide value to customers, partners and suppliers. He pointed to the company’s flight-hour index that is reported quarterly as another of JSSI’s early initiatives and said, “we are going to continue to expand. That is the future of our business.”
Book credited this strategy for leading JSSI to its strongest sales year yet in 2016, despite the ongoing challenges of the business aviation market. He said, “2015 was a very strong year for us and we’ve already exceed our sales results so far in 2016. We are ahead of where we closed last year.” But also feeding into these results are continued additions to its maintenance program business, as well as reaching into new markets.
As for new programs, next up are offerings for the Falcon 8X and the HondaJet. But Book said, “We have an number of programs in the pipeline.” JSSI’s programs now cover 350 makes and models, and the company is continuing to work to provide a comprehensive approach to its business aircraft coverage, he added.
JSSI is seeing success in both the pre-owned market, as well as new aircraft. “Even though valuation of pre-owned aircraft are extraordinarily low, there’s still a lot of buying and selling taking place in the marketplace. That’s where JSSI gets involved,” he said. The company has had particular growth success in selling maintenance programs to the global markets. Brazil is among the list of countries where JSSI is having its strongest year, he added. Customers in emerging markets, in particular, have propelled JSSI’s tip-to-tail coverage, because they do not have an established infrastructure for support.
In addition to pre-owned, Book estimates that roughly 15 percent of customers of new aircraft have adopted JSSI programs.
Beyond business aviation, JSSI this year has begun to explore possibilities in the regional aircraft market and has signed on Sun-Air of Billund, Denmark as its first regional airline to come on board. Sun-Air, a franchise of British Airways, operates 18 aircraft. JSSI has additionally brought on three smaller regional operators that , with Sun-Air, collectively add close to 30 aircraft to the JSSI portfolio.
These smaller operators are the target customer base for JSSI’s regional airline efforts. “We are identifying a niche,” Book said. We are not looking to go after large commercial airlines that have huge fleets. We believe those airlines get plenty of attention from the manufactures.” The target market, he added, involves “small regional airlines that we believe have been largely ignored by the original equipment manufacturer.”
JSSI also continues to expand its helicopter business, another area that has seen record growth this year. JSSI has offered helicopter programs for decades, Book said, but had not had much success. The company evaluated whether it wanted to be in that business, and after deciding in the affirmative, it hired a dedicated helicopter team, along with technical expertise. As a result, JSSI secured its initial customers last year, with four to five enrollments. That business has begun to build this year with another 20 enrollments. “This is the kind of growth that we like to see and expect to continue,” he said. Noting that market conditions currently underscore a need for cost assurance and risk mitigation, he added, “This is just a starting point for us. There is much bigger opportunity out there.”
