partner companies, Jetlife and Jetcom, to handle 227 cu ft/1,650 pounds–about three offer the airplane for medical service times that of a Gulfstream G550, Jaffe flights as well as private charter. pointed out. The 328JET for DC Aviation includes 328 ComTran operates two of its own Support Services’ own auxiliary fuel system 328JETs in a 30-seat corporate shuttle con- that will extend the range of the airplane to figuration. Through its Jaffe Group parent 2,000 nm. The Welcome Air 328JET will company ComTran owns Horseshoe Bay, also get the auxiliary fuel system mod. about 40 miles west of Austin, and uses the 328 Support Services client Icejet took 328JETs to transport members to and from its 328JET in corporate shuttle configu- the resort. ration to the International Travel Market show in Cannes, France, in December, BAE’s Avro Business Jet and was also at the MEBA convention Is the Heavyweight in Dubai. Icejet, based in Reykjavik, With a ready inventory of aircraft, BAE Iceland, also operates a 14-passenger Systems, which built them as BAe Aero- 328JET and is employing it out of Lon- space, has something of a corner on don Southend Airport in an effort to conversions of its 146 and Avro RJ lines. The spacious cabin of a converted Avro RJ allows for an entertainment center. expand operations in Russia. About 390 BAe 146s and Avro RJs were In the U.S., ComTran International is built, of which 280 are currently in service also turning out executive versions of the in one form or another, including some 30 328JET. The San Antonio-based company in executive or corporate shuttle configura- recently delivered one to a Romanian tion. That leaves an inventory of about 100 Regional makeovers customer and another to a South Texas airplanes available for conversion. customer. Four more are in the refurbish- BAE began marketing used 146s and find a ment process. Avro RJs as the Avro Business Jet in 2006 ComTran president Jordan Jaffe describes and, according to v-p of business develop- his company’s “Revolution Series” 328JET ment Stewart Cordner, seven have already as “bulletproof. It comes from us with a been sold, most of them configured with a ready market one-year warranty on the airframe, avionics “combi” interior–an executive compart- by Kirby J. Harrison and interior, and a pre-paid power-by-the- ment forward and four-abreast business- t a time when everyone seems capability and claims dispatch reliability of hour program takes care of the engine.” class layout aft. to be looking for a bargain, better than 99.8 percent. ComTran has “a number of 328JETs” The most recent delivery was an Avro regional jets reconfigured for And the airplanes are still showing up in in its inventory and does the maintenance RJ70 with an interior created by Design Q an executive role–available at broker inventories. In late December, Ger- modification from a high utilization main- of London and executed by MAC Aircraft considerably less than half the price of mania Executive, based in Friedrichstadt, tenance program to a low-utilization Interior Specialists (former MacCarthy Inte- a comparable new airplane–are being Germany, was listing three Dornier 328JETs maintenance program, as well as the inte- riors) in the UK. The airplane was delivered awidely promoted as just what customers in executive or corporate shuttle config- rior refurbishment. last fall to Bulgaria Air, which will operate it are looking for. uration. One of them was a $7.8 million He also notes that the finished price of on behalf of parent company TIM Bulgaria Turning regional airliners into suitable Envoy 3 with extended-range fuel tanks about $12 million includes FAA and Air. “We have another eight to ten prospec- business aircraft is not a new idea. The and a “quick-change” cabin to allow EASA certification and a specially de- tive customers,” said Robert Morris, BAE’s Dornier 328 twin turboprop was a popular the owner to switch the cabin from a 16- signed thermal/acoustic package reducing regional aircraft and found a ready niche as passenger executive configuration to a cabin noise to about 54 dB (SIL). The a corporate shuttle. So did the Saab 340 32-passenger shuttle layout. auxiliary fuel system is optional and the and Bombardier’s Dash 8, also turboprop airplanes are sent to 328 Support Ser- airplanes. They were economical to operate A New Market for Regional Redos vices in Germany for installation. and designed for the kind of operational But only recently has the regional air- A typically equipped interior includes frequency and short-haul mission typically liner found true mass appeal in an full-size forward galley with cloak closet, required in a shuttle service. executive role, and more than a dozen three DVD players, satellite radio, Aircell Then jets began replacing turboprops in companies are directly or indirectly in the access to broadband connectivity, iPod the regional fleets and–not surprisingly– business, as brokers, completion and refur- docks at every seat, a 10-inch monitor at began finding favor as well in the business bishment centers, major vendors and each seat, and two 20-inch bulkhead- aviation community. In fact, the first BAe service providers. An estimated 20 aircraft mounted monitors. 146 from British Aerospace (now BAE are expected to be delivered this year, The executive seats are from DeCrane Systems) went into service in 1983, and and according to those occupied with the and the cabin management system is that same year, as the Statesman, it entered acquisition, sale and completion, the mar- from Honeywell. Baggage capacity can service in a head-of-state configuration ket can absorb that many aircraft annually, with the 32nd Squadron of the British at least in the near term. Right, a reconfigured Do 328Jet from 328 Support Royal Air Force. Goderich Aircraft in Huron Park, Ontar- Services features an expanded aft lavatory. Below, Bombardier began offering the Cana- io, is at work converting four Dornier the Do 328JET offers a large-cabin alternative to a dair Corporate Jetliner executive and 328JETs to an executive role. Two of the air- new business jet of comparable size but at about corporate shuttle variants of its CRJ100 in planes are destined for an undisclosed one-fifth the cost. 1997, followed in 2005 by the Challenger customer in Ukraine, while the other two are 850, the 19-passenger executive version. for U.S.-based corporate flight departments. Fairchild Dornier’s 328JET was intro- In Wessling, Germany, 328 Support duced as the Envoy 3 in 1997, available in Services has just turned over a 12-passen- both executive and corporate shuttle vari- ger 328JET to DC Aviation of Germany. ants. In 2005, the last year it was produced, And delivered earlier from the company’s the aircraft sold for $14.5 million in a stan- Oberpfaffenhofen Airport center was a 10- dard executive configuration. passenger 328JET for an undisclosed In fact, there is today a sizeable fleet of European customer. converted regional aircraft flying as execu- Also in the works at 328 Support Ser- tive aircraft or in a corporate shuttle vices is modification of a 328JET for configuration. Ultimate Jetcharters of Austrian airline Welcome Air. The interior North Canton, Ohio, operates a fleet of 11 is being modified to accommodate six Dornier 328JETs in configurations ranging quick-change executive seats and three from 12-seat executive to 30-seat shuttle. medevac stations capable of holding up to The operator promotes the short-field five stretchers, permitting Welcome Air’s 32aaAviation International News • February 2009 • www.ainonline.com v-p of marketing and analysis. side-facing divans placed to enhance the The BAe 146s (models 100, 200 and view of the central 42-inch LCD monitor, 300) were built earlier but nevertheless tend an extended lavatory with Villeroy & Boch to have logged only about 30,000 cycles, fixtures, an in-flight entertainment system “which is low, considering that the air- from Denmark’s Bang & Olufsen, and a planes were designed for an 80,000-cycle surround-sound package from Tenencia. limit.” In an executive role, the airplanes are MAC is working on two more Avro unlikely to tally more than 400 cycles a Business Jets for BAE, following full year, noted Morris. As for the newer Avro maintenance workups by Inflite Engineer- Regional Redo: Goderich Aircraft RJs (the RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100), “many of ing Services. 328JET reconfiguration them have as few as 10,000 cycles.” Regional Airliners Fly Again P.O. Box 544 Hangar #2, Canada Drive “The business aviation market is start- Canadair RJ200 Finding a Ready Market in Executive Service Huron Park, Ontario N0M 1YO ing to recognize that these airplanes are an The third major aircraft contender for The companies listed below are either directly or indirectly www.goderichaircraft.com excellent investment,” said Morris. The air- the executive conversion market is Bom- involved in the acquisition and sale of regional airliners reconfig- [email protected] frame is relatively inexpensive, “about $1.5 bardier’s CRJ200 (Canadair Regional Jet), a ured for executive use, or their maintenance and interior million to $2 million.” Maintenance, a full regional airliner that entered service in refurbishment. Others are involved as manufacturers of extended- executive interior and fresh exterior paint 1991. Since then, Bombardier has pro- range auxiliary fuel systems for these airplanes, and one has JetCorp Technical Services give the finished Avro Business Jet a price moted it in an executive configuration, first launched a worldwide service network for the CRJ200/100 series. CRJ200 reconfiguration tag of just under $10 million.