Inside Industry 3

SKYSERVICE BUSINESS AVIATION I PROFILE

2 Inside Industry

HELPING EXCELLENCE

Consistently voted best FBOs in North America, SkyserviceBusiness Aviation is a company that puts safety and serviceexcellence first, ensuring that its clients enjoy a world class,

private aircraft experience.Clients have entrusted their airplane management needs to the

company for over 30 years, and the leading best practices exem-plified by Skyservice today are enjoying great gains in growingthe private aviation business.Marshall Myles, CEO of Skyservice Business Aviation, shared the

company’s history and growth, as well as its outlook for the future. “We have been in business since 1986,” he said. “With changes

in the industry, however, comes opportunities for growth, not onlyfor Skyservice, but for the industry overall.”

A refreshing outlookThe opportunities that Mr Myles described are certainly plentiful,but he first recapped some further milestones for Skyservice. “Skyservice was founded in 1986 in Montreal, and in 1995 we

added the second FBO location in Toronto, adding 160,000 sqft of

hangar space,” he explained. “In 2005, we acquired another FBOalong with an additional 96,000 sqft of hangar space in Calgary,and then acquired a fourth location in the Canadian market inNovember 2016 with the acquisition of an FBO in Ottawa, wherewe added another 40,000 sqft of hangar space.”The quality of service is highly recognised. The Skyservice

FBO in Montreal was named the top FBO in Canada by a leadingCanadian trade publication, with Toronto ranking as the top FBOin the province of Ontario. Furthermore, Aviation InternationalNews recently ranked Skyservice’s Toronto FBO in the top 5% ofFBOs in the Americas; with Calgary and Toronto ranking first inCanada. US based Business Jet Traveler also ranked Skyservice’sToronto FBO in the top 5% of all FBOs in the Americas. Quite simply,the awards highlight Skyservice’s commitment to the quality of ser-vice it provides to each and every customer. “We have four FBO locations in Canada, as I have described, and

three pillars to our business,” Mr Myles elaborated. “They are aircraftmanagement and private charter, FBO, and aircraft maintenance. Wemanage 75 airplanes, mostly mid to heavy jets. Skyservice also

For over 30 years, Skyservice Business Aviat

ion located in Canada has been a

leader in business aircraft management, cha

rter, Fixed Base Operations (FBOs),

and aircraft maintenance. Marshall Myles, Sk

yservice CEO, gave his perspective

on the company’s expansion prospects, his pl

ans to penetrate the US market and

the overall growth of the private aviation ind

ustry worldwide. Tony White reports.

take flight

SKYSERVICE BUSINESS AVIATION I PROFILE

4 Inside Industry Inside Industry 5

Skyservice has over 650 employees – almost half of which are accredited maintenance professionals – along with 160pilots. Many of these individuals have been with the companyfor 10, or sometimes even 20 years. This depth of experiencehelps Skyservice deliver integrated solutions that win client loyalty time and time again.“One of the key elements in that success,” suggested Mr Myles,

“is that Skyservice operates under a philosophy of transparencyand accountability.“In our managed aircraft business group, we provide turn-key

solutions: hangar space, fuel, service and maintenance and flightcoordination. We cover all of the services that clients may require.” Mr Myles added: “Aircraft management is the biggest driver for us

today and key to our growth in the future. In the Canadian market,there are just over 400 aircraft classified as business aircraft, andwe manage 75 of those. Looking at the market and our depth of

knowledge and strong team, there are still significant growth oppor-tunities for Skyservice in Canada.” The capabilities and attention to detail in Skyservice’s team are a

large component in how it accomplishes so much, yet the company isalso aware of how a shortage of qualified maintenance techniciansand pilots could well impact the industry going forward. “Looking ahead, we anticipate a continued shortage of quali-

fied pilots and maintenance engineers,” noted Mr Myles. “Wehave started to work with schools by providing various co-opopportunities within the organisation. In addition to the pilotand maintenance engineer shortage, a shortage of hangar space to accommodate the growth in the industry is a factor rightaround the world.” With its overall growth plans for the business – within and beyond

Canada – Skyservice looks to continue to lead in the industry. “Worldwide, it is a very healthy market today,” he concluded. n

offers business and commercial aircraft operators the best of tech-nical services and is the authorised service facility in Canada formany OEMs.” Skyservice also manages airplanes and provides services out-

side of the company’s four bases including Vancouver, Victoria,Windsor, Waterloo and Halifax. “In total, we currently have over 550,000 sqft of hangar space,”

Mr Myles highlighted. “We have just started construction in Torontoon a new location adding, 100,000 sqft of hangar space, plus an addi-tional 20,000 sqft dedicated to office and lounge space. It is sched-uled to open in spring 2019 and will help facilitate our growth in theToronto market.”

The personal approachSkyservice has established key relationships with leading man-ufacturers of business jets from around the globe, includingBombardier, Gulfstream, Dassault/Falcon and HondaJet. As anauthorised service facility for these manufacturers, Skyservice per-forms maintenance and warranty services through its maintenancegroup for not only their own managed aircraft but other fleets as well.

Skyservice hasestablished keyrelationshipswith leadingmanufacturersof business jets”

“