Hawker choses Absolute Aviation to replace National Airways Corporation (NAC) in South Africa

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation has appointed Absolute Aviation as its exclusive Beechcraft distributor for Sub-Saharan Africa replacing National Airways Corporation (NAC) which had been its representative for over 40 years.

The announcement has surprised many participants in South Africa who had expected Execujet South Africa to become the new distributor once it was announced that NAC would stop working with Hawker. Instead the company has chosen to work with a company founded by Neil Howard, former head of maintenance at ExecuJet.

Absolute Aviation is based at Lanseria International Airport, which is about one hour from central Johannesburg.

“We have already seen strong interest in our aircraft from a number of organizations, including multi-nationals based there,” said Sean McGeough, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Hawker Beechcraft. “Africa represents a huge opportunity for us as travel around the continent is becoming increasingly important.”

NAC’s distributor agreement expired at the end of 2010 and was not reviewed. One official involved in negotiations says that the two companies did not agree about the value of aircraft that NAC was required to buy each year and that NAC also requested vendor financing.

As well as running a pilot training school and maintenance facilities, NAC is a representative for Pilatus aircraft and Robinson Helicopters.

Comair has been the South African representative for Cessna for over 40 years. This is the manufacturer’s longest relationship with any distributor.