ABS Jets (ABP, Prague Václav Havel) considers aircraft maintenance to be its core business and builds its aircraft management strategy around the types for which it holds in-house maintenance type ratings, CEO Jan Kralik told ch-aviation in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of EBACE in Geneva.
"Pure aircraft management, which is our business, is not that significant a moneymaker [in terms of margins]. So our unique selling point is that we have the ecosystem behind aircraft management. We are not just an operator; the biggest business we run is the MRO, line maintenance, and ground handling at both Prague Václav Havel and Bratislava. So it makes sense to focus on some types only - when one is focused on the MRO, the more units of a certain type of aircraft in the fleet you have, the more revenue it brings on the MRO site," he explained.
He said that certifying maintenance for dozens of types is possible, but costly. As such, a narrower focus is preferable. ABS Jets is currently certified to maintain Embraer Executive Jets' E500 Phenom 100 and E505 Phenom 300 types, as well as Gulfstream Aerospace G550s, G650s, and GVII-G500s.
ABS Jets is not entirely against adding other types to its managed fleet, but it takes a cautious approach to doing so. Kralik said the company has tended to reject customers with an entirely new aircraft type due to the complexity associated with adding such aircraft. "If it's a niche aircraft, it doesn't bring that much revenue compared to the troubles of operating a single aircraft of a type. The goal is not to have 40 aircraft of 25 types - the goal is to have control over our business," he claimed.
The operator aspires to work with customers and prospective customers on fleet acquisitions. Kralik said that by advising owners, ABS Jets can ensure they select the best aircraft for their preferred routes, passenger numbers, and estimated annual utilisation. Should an owner insist on a new type, they would also have to finance the training and maintenance expansion for the operator.
The Czech operator's in-house fleet currently comprises one Challenger 605, one Cessna Citation XLS Gen2, one Citation XLS+, one Falcon 7X, three G550s, two G650s, three G650ERs, one GVII-G500, three Legacy 600s, and one Legacy 650.
ABS Jets does not own any of the aircraft, and Kralik was adamant that it has no plans to enter the full charter business, in which, in his opinion, it is incredibly difficult to turn a profit while maintaining appropriate standards of service.
Impact of Russia closure
The closure of the Russian market following the 2022 sanctions on the country heavily impacted ABS Jets' maintenance business. As the closest authorised Embraer Executive Jets AMO, the company was a preferred choice for such business jets operated in Russia. "All of a sudden, we lost almost a significant portion of the maintenance business for a year," Kralik conceded.
To compensate, ABS Jets has refocused on projects that it originally planned to execute later on. It reoriented toward customers in Western and Central Europe and managed to fully offset the Russian demand lost for its maintenance division.
Czech AOC
The operator currently has customers exclusively in Czechia and Slovakia, its two home markets, but operates with a single Czech AOC. Kralik conceded that one of the challenges is the lasting and unjustified image of the country as "Eastern Europe" and thus supposedly adhering to lower standards than Western European counterparts.
"It's not as bad as it used to be 20, 30 years ago, but still, some people prefer to have their aircraft registered in Germany or the UK," he said.
Despite this stigma, Kralik underlined that the Czech CAA is professional and the country is very business-friendly. Czechia "has a good ecosystem for business aviation" and the physical closeness of the regulator is an advantage. Having another AOC would add an unnecessary administrative burden and cost with no obvious benefits to ABS at this moment.
The cost base of a Czech AOC is currently "more or less the same" as in Western Europe, Kralik confirmed. However, he revealed that because average salaries in Czechia are lower, ABS Jets has problems hiring specialists, such as engineers, who are highly mobile and can work abroad for higher wages.
The lack of strong flag carriers based in Czechia or Slovakia has influenced some companies to inquire about the opportunities of owning their own business jets, but given the high difference in costs between flying commercial and owning a private aircraft, the number remains limited.
While most of ABS Jets' aircraft are registered in Czechia, two Gulfstreams are on the Aruban P4- register due to their owners' decisions. Kralik underlined that even though these two aircraft are operated purely non-commercially, ABS Jets applies exactly the same standards. "From the operations perspective, there is no difference," he said.
