Demand for wide body completions is strong. Demand is largely driven by Middle Eastern and other global heads of state looking into replacing ageing wide body aircraft; especially now that the Boeing 747-8 VIP variant is shortly due for delivery to completions centers.
So to the EBACE news we know about:
SR Technics (Switzerland) confirmed its first VIP completion contract, an Airbus wide body completions project for a Middle East customer. According to published reports this news comes five months after announcing its entry into the market with the aircraft arriving in the third quarter to completions centre and to be delivered to service in 2012.
AMAC Aerospace (Switzerland) released news at EBACE that it will outfit a Boeing 747-8I. The 20-month project is scheduled to commence in June 2012 at AMAC’s Basel facility.
AMAC chief executive Heinz Köhli said he expects a market for 200 VIP wide-bodied aircraft over the next decade, most of which will he expects to be fought over by AMAC, Jet Aviation, Lufthansa Technik and now SR Technics.
Jet Aviation (Switzerland) – it is already known pre-show that Jet Aviation has signed a completions agreement for the first 747-8 off Boeings production line, which is due early 2012.
Narrow bodies: AMAC and Lufthansa Technik announced a flurry of narrow body deals at EBACE. AMAC is to complete an Airbus ACJ319; whilst Lufthansa Technik has signed a letter of commitment for a Boeing BBJ2 for Freestream Aircraft, while its US subsidiary BizJet International will outfit an ACJ319 for an Asian customer.