Luxaviation fills senior roles in Germany
Operator Luxaviation has appointed Joachim Krüger and Paul van der Blom (pictured left to right) to senior roles within the German side of the business.
Krüger will take on the role of vice president of Northern Europe and MD of the German Entities, while van der Blom has been appointed as director for Commercial Development of the Northern European region.
The two appointments are part of a strategy to “reinforce activities in the German market by counting on renowned experts well positioned in the ecosystem”, the company said. Luxaviation has been operating aircraft management, charter and sales in Germany since 2011, when it acquired Fairjets which had been active in the region since 2006. Luxaviation retained its management and base in Paderborn, and has bilateral agreements with aviation authorities in Italy, Austria, Sweden, Spain and Denmark.
Krüger comes to the role with more than two decades of experience in business aviation. He co-founded Fairjets before the firm was acquired by Luxaviation.
Van der Blom brings 30 years of experience in commercial aviation across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He previously acted as director of Business Development, Aircraft Operational Management at ExecuJet and was director of Aircraft Sales and Acquisitions Services in Asia for Hawker Pacific.
Its FBOs at Berlin and Munich are high revenue generators, Luxaviation said. The company is refurbishing the current General Aviation Terminal (GAT) at Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg (BER) in order to meet new European Standards in 2023.
“Luxaviation is well established in the German market,” said Krüger. “The strengthening of our teams confirms our commitment to providing global support to our clients and allows us to accentuate our development particularly in Germany, which represents a mature and dynamic aeronautical market and a source of opportunities.”
The company has been building its presence in Europe over the past few years. Last summer, the group added the 2021 Gulfstream G600 to its fleet at London Luton Airport and in May this year it announced the addition of the Cessna Citation M2 Gen2 jet to its fleet in Le Bourget, Paris Airport, France. Six more aircraft were added to its global fleet this autumn, two of which (the Cessna Citation CJ2 and CJ4 Gen 2) were based in Germany and Belgium.
The market in Germany has been cooling slightly this year in comparison with 2021, but figures are still up from 2019 and 2020 figures, according to WingX. In the first four weeks of November this year, there were 398 business jet departures from Munich International Airport, down 0.7% from November 2021 but still up 49.1% from November 2020.
In Berlin Brandenburg Airport there were 394 private jet departures this month so far, down 22.7% from this time last year. But flights were still up 71.3% from November 2020 and 13.9% higher than 2019.
