Airshare finalizes purchase of Wheels Up’s aircraft management
Over the weekend, Airshare closed a deal to acquire rival Wheels Up’s aircraft management business. The move more than quadruples Airshare’s own managed fleet - comprising Cessna Citations, Bombardier Globals, Embraer Legacies and Praetors, and other models - with the addition of 90 airframes. In addition to the aircraft, the Overland Park, Kansas-based company will inherit 300 personnel from Wheels Up’s private management business.
After the sale, Wheels Up still has 215 airframes, including 75 King Air turboprops, 52 super midsize jets it can deploy for transcontinental flights, and 61 light jets. Wheels Up with its 12’000 members continues its transition with a slimmed down primary service area – announced in May and implemented at the end of June – and plans to heavily integrate sales and marketing with Delta Air Lines. Following a $500 million rescue package, Delta Air Lines now controls 95% of Wheels Up, along with Certares, which owns Internova, one of the nation’s largest luxury and corporate travel agencies, restructuring specialist Knighthead, and Cox Enterprises. www.flyairshare.com
Up to 1500 new Jets inbound at NetJets
Textron Aviation and NetJets revealed an agreement which would give the private jet firm owned by Berkshire Hathaway an option to buy up to 1,500 additional Cessna Citation business jets over the next 15 years. This historic agreement will allow NetJets to take delivery of up to a combined 100 Cessna Citation Ascend, Citation Latitude, and Citation Longitude aircraft per year over the next 15 years. Furthermore, NetJets will be the fleet launch customer for Textron Aviation’s newest midsize jet - the Citation Ascend. Deliveries of the latter are expected to begin in 2025. The deal for Cessna Citation business jets could be valued at approximately $30 billion, according to analysts at Jefferies. Since the inception of a more than 40-year relationship, NetJets has taken delivery of over 850 Textron Aviation aircraft, which will soon include over 300 Citation Latitudes and Longitudes.
NetJets currently operates more than 900 aircraft worldwide and the company is averaging over 1,200 worldwide flights per day. www.netjets.com
Albinati Aeronautics and Jetron join forces
Swiss private jet operator Albinati Aeronautics is embarking on a joint venture with Jetron, a Slovakia-based specialist in the marketing, resale and purchase of pre-owned private aircraft. Combining over 40 years of accumulated expertise, resources and passion for the private aviation industry, Albinati Aeronautics CEO Stefano Albinati and Jetron CEO Marian Jancarik are launching their newly created company Jetron Switzerland.
The main activities will be the sale and acquisition of pre-owned business aircraft worldwide and the provision of advice to aircraft owners, lenders and institutions about the resale value of their assets. The company will coordinate marketing and sales efforts around the world to represent a variety of aircraft on behalf of its customers. "We are keen to further expand and enhance our services in the aviation industry. We have strategic plans in place to consolidate our position as a notable player in the global market", said Albinati Aeronautics CEO Stefano Albinati.
People: Christian Scherer to become new Commercial Aircraft business CEO at Airbus
Airbus has appointed Christian Scherer as the CEO of its Commercial Aircraft division as part of a wider shake-up of the company's Executive Committee. He was appointed Airbus Chief Commercial Officer in September 2018 and is a Member of the company’s Executive Committee. He is also heading Airbus International and was previously CEO of ATR, a position he held since Nov 2016. Prior to this, Christian was Executive Vice-President and Head of Airbus Group International, responsible for driving the overall Airbus Group internationalisation strategy.
Christian started his professional career in 1984 when he joined Airbus Industries as a Commercial Contracts Manager. He was seconded to the US between 1987 and 1994 as Vice President Contracts of Airbus North America, responsible for pricing, financial performance, negotiation and implementation of all sales transactions in North America. On his return to headquarters, as Vice President Leasing Markets, he developed and managed an integrated sales division. In 1999, he was appointed Vice President Contracts and Pricing worldwide while retaining leadership of the Leasing Markets Division and in 2003 he also became the Deputy Head of Commercial.
Following his time in Commercial, he became Head of Strategy and Future Programs at Airbus. In 2012, he was appointed Head of Sales & International Operations at Cassidian in Munich, Germany, responsible for sales, marketing, strategy and Cassidian’s international subsidiaries. Upon integration of Airbus’ Defence, Space and Military aircraft businesses, he became the Head of Marketing & Sales of Airbus Defence and Space and Managing Director of Airbus Defence and Space GmbH.
Born in 1962 in Duisburg, Germany, and raised in Toulouse, France, Christian Scherer holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and graduated from the Paris Business School (ESCP) in 1984.