It is a happy New Year at Atlas Air Service AG as the firm acquired a 100% stake in maintenance specialist, AAL AG. Atlas’s CEO, Nicolas von Mende tells Corporate Jet Investor the acquisition will mainly benefit customers.
AAL AG, based in Altenrhein, in eastern Switzerland, on Lake Constance, specialises in maintenance and is an authorised service centre for aircraft manufactured by Embraer, Gulfstream (G150, G200, G280) and the TBM family. It is also authorised to service some Cessna and Pilatus models. With 50 employees, the firm generates a growing annual turnover of over 12m Swiss francs.
von Mende said: “Now if a customer has an AOG [aircraft on ground incident] for example, if they are in southern Europe we have a pool of technicians who can assist and the same is true of northern Europe too. The pool is now much larger as a whole. [All of this means] We can provide an improved service for our customers.”
Another benefit of the merger is the increased availability of spare parts. Atlas can now combine all three of the spare parts warehouses held across its subsidiaries.
The acquisition will not alter the leadership team at AAL AG, according to von Mende – this was the case with Atlas’ takeover of Augsburg Air Service too.
“What is clear to me is that the leadership team and the people responsible for the customer contact within a business are in that business and know their company. The ambitious management in Altenrhein will remain fully responsible for running AAL AG,” said von Mende.
John van Emden, MD AAL, added : “Together with Atlas Air Service and Augsburg Air Service, we are a group that is five times larger than AAL AG. High-value test-equipment and tools can now be used within the whole group; thus we expand our competence – to the benefit of our customers.”
The contracting parties have agreed to maintain confidentiality about the terms of the takeover.
