Leesburg, Va.-based AvCraft last month signed a contract to buy the Fairchild Dornier 328 program and its associated support businesses.
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.
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