Luxury business jet dealer Aero Toy Store is bringing its grandest selection of aircraft and helicopters to EBACE. And the company is getting its feet wet in yacht sales too.
Aero Toy Store is finding its high-end niche and expanding its charter, completions, FBO and aircraft resale operations from its base at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. “Growing in leaps and bounds. Business is wonderful,” says spokesperson Linda Villafane, “Now we’ll be able to do our completions in Montreal, aside from our headquarters.”
In addition, there is a new office in Beverly Hills and a facility at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. “We’re also going to have a summer office in Monte Carlo,” she adds.
 |
|---|
Aero Toy Store's typical Challenger 605 is at EBACE |
Make that a stylish floating office complex. A 147ft Sterling yacht is undergoing a complete retrofit to showcase Aero Toy Store’s maintenance and interior work, and a recently-retrofitted 88ft Pershing yacht will also be berthed in Monte Carlo from early July until September, and the two boats will serve as the company’s European sales centre.
Aero Toy Store earned its reputation by anticipating international trends and then creating the most refined, sought-after business aircraft in the industry, says chairman C. Steven McMillan. Its role as authorised representative of Aerion Corporation’s Supersonic Business Jet has yielded agreements in place for the sale of 12 of the aircraft, which will be able to fly at Mach 1.6 at an altitude of 51,000ft, with a range of 4,000nm.
McMillan expects more sales this week. “EBACE is among the world’s most prestigious air shows,” he says, and EBACE 2008 is the first time Aero Toy Store is showing four new aircraft at a trade show.
 |
|---|
| The Challenger 605 completions are no problem for Aero Toy Store |
Ready for sale today - if they’ve not already been sold - are two new Bombardier Challenger 605s , two new Bombardier Global Express XRS jets, a Falcon 900EX and a refurbished Challenger 850 that shows off the store’s completions expertise. One 605 is a green model. “Whoever ends up buying it we’ll really customize it to their liking,” says Villafane.
An impressive inventory of a variety of light and mid-sized aircraft, such as Citations, Hawkers and Lears, is one flight plan away. Aero Toy Store also sells its share of AgustaWestland helicopters, giving it one of the world’s largest available inventories of Agusta rotary aircraft, including the AW139, Agusta Grand, AW119KE helicopters. Aero Toy Store also has Bell 429s, Bell 407s and the soon-to-be-released BA609 in its inventory, and it is the exclusive provider of the Pininfarina Edition AW139, a version styled by the Italian automotive design house responsible for many Ferrari and Maserati cars.
The automotive connection helped founder Morris Shirazi start his expanding transport enterprise. Aero Toy Store was formerly one of the world’s largest exotic and luxury car dealers, and while it still offers those ‘hot wheels’, Shirazi sold the car business to concentrate on buying and selling private and corporate business jets. Aero Toy Store has recorded lifetime aircraft sales in excess of $3 billion.
He’s still CEO, and knows the residents of Beverly Hills, California has serious taste in cars, private aviation services and fine yachts. The new sales facility there will be managed by Rolf Smith, who brings 15 years’ experience and sales success in the aviation industry to Aero Toy Store, much of it with Gulfstream. “Rolf’s vast expertise in mid-size and long range aircraft, coupled with his passion for helicopters, is an ideal fit for our team,” says Shirazi.
In Montreal, a $7.6m construction project has added a 30,000ft2 aircraft hangar and a 15,000ft2 completions centre to its current facility. Construction is complete after starting in late summer of 2007. The Montreal FBO encompasses 200,000ft2, including ramp space, and includes a 41,000ft2 showroom, hangar and offices equipped “with the most advanced security and technological aviation equipment available”, Shirazi says.
“The strong demand for our aircraft in this and surrounding markets made it the optimum time to expand our Montreal FBO and provide our clientele the full range of services offered at our Fort Lauderdale headquarters.”
Villafane expects each new location will see a boost in visits and orders once clients and potential clients learn they’re available, and she also predicts they’ll fly back from Geneva owning fewer aircraft. “They do very well during these shows. They have experienced good, positive sales at all of these shows,” she says.
Flight's ACAS Buisness Aviation
Flight's 2008 pocket guide to business aircraft
For blogs, video, pictures, and more news from EBACE 2008, click here.
More news from EBACE 2008
Source: Flight Daily News
