A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

On the eve of EBACE 2019, VIP airliner specialist Comlux (Booth O99) announced the delivery of its first widebody cabin completion: an A330 for an undisclosed customer. The design and installation were performed at Comlux Completion, the Swiss company’s purpose-built facility in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dubbed “Slice of Life,” the project’s design goal was to create a five-star hotel experience in the air.

 


The A330’s 200-sq-m (2,200-sq-ft) cabin is configured for 31 passengers and features a pair of master suites, dining areas, lounges, a fully outfitted gym room, and entertainment area, as well as a first-class seating section. Notable interior elements include a circular entryway with a domed ceiling made of hand-cut glass and lattice work, as well as crown molding in the staterooms.

 


It also incorporates several Comlux Completion innovations: curved pocket doors; an ultra-quiet wide-body air conditioning system; a new first-class seat and pod system design; and a 52-inch curved OLED monitor in the entertainment lounge that mirrors the curvature of the room. It also has an Airbus Ka-band Wi-Fi system, Comlux Completion’s first such installation.

 


“With our first widebody completion, we are now entering the club of a very few widebody approved completion centers,” said Comlux executive chairman and CEO Richard Gaona. “This ACJ330 is the perfect example of our competencies within the Comlux Group.” he continued, noting that, in addition to design and completion, the company handled the aircraft’s acquisition for its own fleet and then sold the aircraft to the undisclosed owner through its Comlux Transactions division, and that now Comlux Aviation, it’s VIP airline company, will operate the aircraft on its AOC registry in Aruba. Comlux Aviation currently operates a VIP BBJ767 and BBJ777 under that registry, and also has AOCs from Malta, Switzerland, San Marino, and Kazakhstan.

 


With the Group’s various divisions involved in the A330, the project also gave birth to Comlux Tech, an operating framework that the company will use going forward to ensure all of its competencies are available to serve each client. For example, Comlux Aviation, having operated VIP airliners worldwide for more than a decade, brings invaluable experience to the completion phase in terms of creating a cabin for ease of operation and simplified maintenance once in service. Meanwhile, the engineering team at Comlux Completion can design proprietary solutions for in-service equipment that needs modification for maintenance or other reasons.

 


Under Comlux Completion’s new management team of CEO Daron Dryer and executive v-p Domingo Ureña-Raso, the center is now poised to move aggressively into the widebody completion market. The Comlux Completion facility can accommodate widebody aircraft as large as Boeing’s 747. “There are some [widebodies] coming on the market,” he said, alluding to announced new aircraft including the BBJ777 and ACJ350 XWB, “and we want everybody to know we’re here.”

 


According to Gaona, widebody completions are much more challenging than narrowbodies, particularly in terms of achieving certification standards, such as meeting cabin decompression requirements. With three times the interior space, widebodies also require about three times the man-hours and twice the lead time of a single-aisle VIP airliner completion.&nbsp;

 


The A330 marks Comlux Completion’s 12th interior completion, having previously delivered a variety of narrowbody green completions. The facility&nbsp;is self-contained, capable of producing virtually all interior elements in-house, but&nbsp;Gaona said he wanted to extend a special thanks to suppliers who are also critical to its projects. The facility is currently completing the cabins for the first BBJ Max 8 and the first VIP ACJ320 neo. For the BBJ Max, the&nbsp;in-house design team is working with the client’s designer, Peter Marino Architect of New York.

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