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On the Record With
BEN BARTEL, CEO, AVCRAFT AEROSPACE
Since Fairchild Dornier's bankruptcy in 2002, the fate of the Dornier 328Jet and its Envoy corporate stablemate has hinged on new owners AvCraft Aerospace restarting production. Now, a firm new-production roll-out deadline has been set for April 2005, and the workforce at Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany is gearing up to raise the Phoenix from the ashes.
"The importance of the first aircraft coming off the production line next year can't be over-emphasized," AvCraft's CEO Ben Bartel told ShowNews, noting that, once the first new-build 328Jet emerges, he's confident more orders will follow.
"We have a number of sales prospects which will move forward to firm orders once that happens. We also have a couple of orders that are already signed and which will trigger-off automatically."
Bartel says that all suppliers are now in place except one, "Which is currently under negotiation on economic grounds, and we are trying to work out final numbers. We've met the reliability date, we've got the wing production back in-house, we've pretty much made our dates, but the process has been more difficult than we originally forecast. Right now production and steep approach certification is on schedule."
Envoy lead customer club328 (previously known as Bookajet) and its new JETS engineering base at Southampton, UK, are expected to play a key role in adding credence to the aircraft's future. JETS is to maintain club328's Envoy fleet and hopes to become a major European force for third-party 328Jet maintenance and technical support. Club328 is wet-leasing its fleet of 16-seat luxury aircraft to Club Airways for its members-only scheduled flights between major European cities.
"We are currently working on the club328 order and their management have proved to be very, very demanding," said Bartel. "And I say that in a good sense—they are just the kind of partners that we're looking for. I'm really excited about the whole club328/Club Airways concept, as it will drive sales on."
Approval to fly the 5.5º approach into London City Airport is central to Club Airways' UK operations and will be concluded during the fourth quarter of this year, according Bartel. "We've checked out the software and are testing an aircraft on a 7º glideslope approach in Switzerland. Once we are satisfied, we will demonstrate the aircraft at LCY. We've found that the 328Jet will require slight flap modification, similar to that fitted on our turboprop 328s, (which are already certificated for LCY) so it's not a problem."
AvCraft inherited five incomplete airframes from Fairchild Dornier. The first two of these will be delivered late November and early December. Twelve new-build aircraft are planned for production in 2005, and 18 in 2006.
Bartel forecasts that 60-65% of future 328Jets will be sold to airlines, 25% as Envoys and Executive Shuttles, while 10% could be special missions aircraft.
A Dornier 328Jet in Executive Shuttle configuration is here in the static aircraft park and AvCraft is at Booth 13000.
—Mike Vines
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