Leesburg, Va.-headquartered AvCraft Aviation’s takeover of Fairchild Dornier’s 328 program, including the 328JET production line at Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, was pronounced complete on March 26 by insolvency administrator Dr. Eberhard Braun, who is responsible for selling off the various divisions of the bankrupt aircraft manufacturer. According to the plant’s new management, production should resume during the first quarter of next year. AvCraft Aviation LLC, incorporated in Delaware in 1999, will continue to operate the OEM under the Fairchild Dornier name for the time being.

Early last year, Braun had announced that production of the 328JET would continue until all orders at hand were fulfilled. But when several airlines abruptly canceled their orders, 18 completed aircraft and five more in various stages of assembly remained at the manufacturer’s plant. The new owner is trying to sell these aircraft while the production line is being prepared for reactivation, but times could hardly be worse for finding buyers willing to acquire new regional airliners. The executive Envoy 3 version of the aircraft may be easier to sell, but an STC for that version remains unsecured. Three of the 18 remaining 328JETs have already been delivered to factory-authorized service center Aero-Dienst at Nuremberg since AvCraft’s takeover of the 328 line. Aero-Dienst will also serve as regional distributor for the Envoy 3. AvCraft plans to establish a total of five service centers outside the U.S.

Back To Work in Oberpfaffenhofen
According to Wolfgang Walter, managing director of the German plant, 220 people at the Oberpfaffenhofen site are currently on the AvCraft payroll. They are charged with supporting a fleet of some two hundred 328 airplanes in operation (about equally divided between the jet and turboprop versions) and providing spares management and engineering. Walter previously served as senior vice president of the 328 program with Fairchild Dornier and thoroughly knows the product. AvCraft/Fairchild Dornier senior vice president of sales and marketing Robert Stanford is responsible for marketing the remaining aircraft and finding additional customers for newly built 328JETs.