The Comlux business aviation services group on Monday announced the expansion its presence in the growing Asian market with deals involving both charter and aircraft completions activity. Meanwhile, here at the ABACE show, the Europe-based company is stepping up its search for a prospective partner in China. It already has offices in Hong Kong and Macau.
Comlux’s Kazakhstan aircraft management and charter operation Comlux KZ has just taken delivery of the first Sukhoi Business Jet (SBJ) to be certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency. The interior for the 19-seat aircraft was completed at the Indianapolis facility of the group’s Comlux Completion division on behalf of its Kazakhstan-based owner, Kazakhmys PLC Corporation.
Separately, Comlux Completion announced that it has been commissioned by a pair of Asian clients to comprehensively refurbish a Bombardier Global 6000 and a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ). In the case of the undisclosed Global 6000 operator, this is the second time it has turned to Comlux Completion. The new interior will feature a new design that the company described as luxurious, including all new soft furnishings, seats, metallic treatments, fixtures, wood, stone counter tops and decorative trim. The facility is currently working on a Global Express aircraft for a Chinese customer.
The work on the BBJ will include various cabin reconfigurations, including the addition of a specially designed bed that pulls out from the cabin’s side ledge to allow more passengers to sleep. The aircraft is owned by an undisclosed client and is being managed by Hong Kong-based Sino Jet, whose CEO Jenny Lau was closely involved in selecting the completions center.
The backlog of work at Comlux Completions has been growing after a busy 2016 that saw it involved in three major completions—an Airbus ACJ330, a BBJ and the SBJ. The Indianapolis facility also has been handling extensive maintenance work on three BBJs and an ACJ.
The Russian-made SBJ has been completed with a contemporary interior design, consisting of a VIP area at the front with club-four seating across from a side-facing sofa and then 15 first-class seats in a 2+1, three-abreast layout. The SBJ is the first of its type to be available for private charter services.
“The SBJ has been delivered on quality and on time and as per the highest standard of the industry,” commented Kazakhmys CEO Eduard Ogay. “The addition of the SBJ to our corporate fleet successfully operated by Comlux KZ allows a large number of our company executives and employees to travel all together efficiently and in full comfort. It’s the right business tool for our company.”
The SBJ is the first of its type to be equipped with a corporate cabin configuration and also approved by European authorities. “This made it especially challenging given that the completions center is in the U.S., for an aircraft without an FAA type certificate, showing once again how Comlux can adapt and find solutions in any environment to best serve our customers,” said Comlux Completion CEO Scott Meyer. “The Comlux team has performed an outstanding job on the aircraft interior, including flight testing and certification under full EASA oversight. Thanks to our cabin innovation research center, we have demonstrated our ability to complete new aircraft interiors beyond ACJs and BBJs.”
According to Comlux group chairman and CEO Richard Gaona, the Asia Pacific market for business aviation has great potential. “We could do much more here if we had a local partner, and especially in China,” he told AIN. “Private jet operations are still fairly new here. There are huge opportunities but it’s going to take time. Second hand aircraft sell quite fast in China, but longer term projects for new aircraft are complicated.”
Comlux holds delivery positions for corporate jet versions of Boeing’s new Max family of narrowbody airliners and Airbus’s Neo model. These feature new, fuel efficient engines and Gaona’s team already is offering these to Chinese clients. The first of the new aircraft could be delivered to Comlux, which would handle the interior completions, by the end of 2018. “We can get these aircraft into service sooner than Airbus or Boeing,” he said. “Our customers could have the aircraft in service by September 2019, instead of late 2020.”
Last November, the group’s Fly Comlux aircraft management and charter arm, launched a new operation that will make flights available in its own fleet as well as in aircraft owned and operated by other companies. The new OneAbove program started with an alliance with U.S.-based Polaris Aviation Solutions as its first third-party operator, with the Comlux charter sales team set to market flights in its Gulfstream G550 and Boeing Business Jet, both of which are based in the New York area. Comlux intends to add other partner operators around the world, including in Asia.
