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chperplt

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Joined
Nov 25, 2001
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4,123
I heard someone talking about the Dojet the other day and they mentioned that a company out of VA purchased the production rights. Anyone hear about this?
 
AvCraft finds bargain in 328 program deal

by Gregory Polek

Leesburg, Va.-based AvCraft last month signed a contract to buy the Fairchild Dornier 328 program and its associated support businesses. The deal, at press time still subject to government approvals, would include the rights to the Fairchild name, the plant and equipment for the manufacture of 328s and 18 fully built 328JETs in storage at the bankrupt company’s Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany manufacturing complex. Although neither the Fairchild Dornier administrators nor AvCraft would discuss price, asset estimates peg the transaction’s value, including the completed airplanes, at roughly $100 million.
AvCraft CEO Ben Bartel has met with potential corporate customers and existing airline operators of the 328 to assuage concerns over the company’s ability to support the product. Fairchild Dornier, long notorious for its lack of enough parts, warehouses, accurate technical documentation and support expertise to satisfy the needs of airlines, fell into bankruptcy last April largely due to its inability to react to changing requirements of its customers. AvCraft must convince those same customers that it controls the capital and manpower to do better than its bankrupt predecessor.

A corporate aircraft completions and refurb specialist, AvCraft can claim virtually no level of experience in dealing with scheduled airlines. Of course, the level and nature of support expected from a business jet client does not compare with the demands of 328 operators Atlantic Coast Airlines, PSA and Skyway Airlines, for example. The ever-confident Bartel told AIN he relishes the challenge, however.

‘Let the Customers Design It’
“Not for one minute do I think this is going to be easy, but I look at this as an opportunity,” said Bartel, referring to Fairchild’s reputation for less-than-stellar support. “I’ve spoken with virtually all the customers personally. Immediately after this thing closes I’m going to get together all the senior people in the company and we’re going to go out and allow the customers to design [the support infrastructure] through a series of focus groups. I’ve got a pretty successful background in customer service. My basic philosophy is if you let the customers design it, it’s pretty tough to go wrong.”

Bartel said all 328 production will remain in Germany, where some 1,000 employees who participated in a government sponsored “occupational program” stand ready to resume work once the assembly line opens. “It’s a state-of-the-art facility, it’s brand new and there’s an unbelievably well trained workforce there,” he added. Bartel estimated that within two years the company will employ 500 people in Oberpfaffenhofen. In the U.S., the division will likely need another 500 sales, support, administrative and technical personnel.

The AvCraft CEO estimated that aircraft assembly would begin in about six months, after the company delivers the 18 airplanes still in inventory. Bartel said he has already sold all 18 airplanes, most of which will go to new customers. Eighty percent of the sales, he added, came from non-airline customers, a trend he expects to continue. “I believe there’s a future for between 300 and 500 of these things,” said Bartel. “We have real serious interest already for north of 100 airplanes, and we’re already working on contracts for more than 40.”

AvCraft holds an STC on a shuttle interior mod for the 328JET. A 29-seat version it used to obtain the certification now flies with its Canton, Ohio-based division, AvCraft Jet Charters. It also plans to resume working toward an STC for the Envoy 3, the business jet version of the 328JET that features a flat floor and extended-range fuel tanks. The company had finished more than half the work necessary for the Envoy 3 STC when Fairchild Dornier filed for bankruptcy last April.

With the sale comes Fairchild’s wing production and support facilities in San Antonio, where Fairchild Dornier once employed more than 700 people. Although Bartel said at this point he expects to resume wing production in Texas, that could change. “Until I get a better alternative, we’ll leave the wing production in San Antonio,” he said. “Now if someone steps up and says we’ll build the wing for 50 percent of what you’re getting it for today, obviously I’m going to listen.”

AvCraft also plans to conduct Fairchild business out of its offices in Leesburg, near the site of Fairchild’s largest U.S. sales office in Herndon, “but there won’t be anything of that grandeur,” said Bartel. “My corporate philosophy is different from the previous ownership. I believe most of the money and most of the company’s presence should be geared toward operations rather than corporate offices.”

AvCraft currently employs about 160 people, and generated revenues of roughly $30 million last year.
 
Should be interesting times ahead, who knows......

AvCraft’s 328 buy closes under cloud of skepticism, uncertainty
by Gregory Polek

When reports began circulating last month that Leesburg, Va.-based AvCraft Aviation had reached an agreement to buy Fairchild Dornier’s 328 production and associated support businesses in Germany, signs of a less-than-healthy state of affairs within AvCraft, particularly at its Tyler, Texas-based repair station, emerged as fast as disgruntled ex-employees could log onto their e-mail servers. At its peak employing more than 100 managers, mechanics and associated support personnel, AvCraft’s Tyler facility has seen its total roster shrink to 22, only one of whom at press time was an A&P certified mechanic. At least two former employees have filed wage claims with the Texas Workforce Commission in an effort to recover back pay, medical premium reimbursements, 401(k) contributions and vacation compensation, while those that remained awaited word on the company’s plans for the future of the Tyler location.

By the third week of March contract negotiations between AvCraft and Fairchild Dornier’s bankruptcy administrators remained in the “final stages,” according to one of the principles of the public-relations firm retained by AvCraft last month. In early January AvCraft CEO Ben Bartel told AIN “the ball is on the one-yard line,” and that only some minor details remained outstanding. A month later news prematurely broke that the sides had reached a final agreement.

On March 26, however, the company announced that it finally reached terms with the administrators on the purchase of “the entire 328 program and its worldwide customer support operations.” The deal reportedly included 18 finished airplanes and five more in various stages of completion. The company said it expects to begin deliveries within 60 days.

Through its public-relations firm, AvCraft claimed it paid all back salaries to the former Tyler employees last month, and attributed the gaffe to an accounting error. However, the Texas Workforce Commission confirmed that one of the claims it received–for $10,460.79– remains open and has entered litigation. AvCraft paid the other, worth $720, on March 5. Several ex-employees insist that the company still owes them benefits compensation. According to the AvCraft spokesman, total employment company-wide now stands at “about 100,” including those working at its Akron, Ohio-based AvCraft Jet Charters division. He also said AvCraft’s Tyler facility “voluntarily” surrendered its licenses for Class 3 aircraft, battery repair, altimeter certification and transponder certification.

In its statement regarding the Fairchild Dornier transaction, AvCraft said it decided to move all service activities to Akron, signaling the imminent closure of the Tyler facility. The company attributed the decision to Akron’s closer location to “major 328 fleet and corporate operators.”

Meanwhile, previous reports of the scope of AvCraft’s purchase appear exaggerated. Notwithstanding Bartel’s stated intention to resume wing production at Fairchild Dornier’s former San Antonio facility, the assets of the U.S. divisions–Dornier Aviation North America (DANA) and Fairchild Aircraft–went up for bids in a Chapter 7 process completely separate from the insolvency proceedings involving Fairchild Dornier GmbH in Germany.

On February 10 the bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Virginia approved DANA’s plan for reorganization and the sale of “substantially” all its assets to a pair of U.S. investors incorporated under the name M7 Capital. Former DANA president Dr. Christof Schiller said that M7 also won the bid for the assets of Fairchild Aircraft, and that the companies expected to close the transactions by March 17. However, at press time the DANA assets remained under the control of a U.S. trustee, Jason Gold of Washington, D.C. lawfirm Wiley Rein & Fielding.

Wiley Rein & Fielding’s Dylan Tranche said the sides hoped to close the transfer of the DANA assets, worth $6 million according to the original sale order, during the last week of March. Although M7 indicated it had committed to retaining most of the some 60 employees left in San Antonio, a number received layoff notices on March 13.
 
This is somewhat off-topic, but this question has been killing me:

Dornier is a German company. Should it be pronounced German-ish, like DOR-ner, or Frenchy, like dor-nee-AY? (Most people I've heard say it Frenchy...)
 
Claude Dornier was born in Kempten, Germany to parents of French and German descent.

Being that his name is wholly French, I believe it's appropriate to pronounce it that way.
 
EOpilot said:
Claude Dornier was born in Kempten, Germany to parents of French and German descent...
Aha! Thanks.
 

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