PrivatAir Completes Le Bourget Facelift

Business Aviation specialist PrivatAir has completed its $1.1 million refurbishment of the former Transair ground handling facilities at Le Bourget in time for the Paris Air Show.

Visitors to the show will see PrivatAir branding on the first of nine hangars to be refurbished, and the company's passenger terminal has been "given a temporary facelift," the company says.

PrivatAir plans to triple the size of the passenger terminal over the next year, to provide office space for tenants as well as lounge facilities for transient passengers and pilots.

PrivatAir acquired Transair's Le Bourget holdings in March 2001, along with Connecticut-based Flight Services Group, an aircraft sales, management and charter company.

As part of the transition to new ownership, Transair's 42 Le Bourget employees are undertaking PrivatAir's customer service training program.

"We are bringing PrivatAir's reputation for quality and service to Le Bourget, and are increasing our share of the [aircraft] fueling business there," says Richard Webb, PrivatAir's Le Bourget manager. "We were delighted to have the opportunity to purchase the Transair facilities earlier this year, as they gave us 30% of all air movements at Le Bourget, 60,000 square meters of parking and 14,000 square meters of hangar space.

"However, the ground handling facilities were in great need of overhaul, and we've just finished the first part of a two-year refurbishment program, which will radically transform the standard and appearance of the facilities."

Geneva-based PrivatAir operates a fleet of Boeing 737s and 757s, and is the only commercial operator of three Boeing Business Jets.

PrivatAir is a unit of the Latsis Group, which recently invested in FlightTime, the Boston-based charter broker that itself owns Wyvern Aviation Consulting and Air Charter Net.

Among other initiatives, FlightTime is working to expand PrivatAir's reach in the U.S. charter market, and PrivatAir's decision to base a BBJ in the U.S. Northeast is based largely on its ties to FlightTime.

By Paul Richfield