Luxury jets for the super-rich How two Basel-based aircraft companies earn a lot from dictator contracts

The two Basel-based companies Amac Aerospace and Jet Aviation customize aircraft according to the wishes of their clients. The customers are often representatives of authoritarian regimes - and they are willing to pay a lot to modernize their aircraft.

Amac Aerospace is based at Euro Airport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg. Just a few meters away, Jet Aviation, a subsidiary of the US armaments group General Dynamics, is based at Euro Airport. The hangars of the aircraft manufacturers are confidently marked. The companies' lettering is prominently displayed on the maintenance hangars.

Both companies specialize in the maintenance and modernization of aircraft. Their customers include wealthy private individuals and governments. But just as often representatives of authoritarian regimes. Time and again, private aircraft are driven into the hangars and disappear behind the closed gates, protected from prying eyes. Maintenance work is then carried out. However, the interior of the aircraft is also regularly brought up to the latest luxury standards and the owners' extravagant wishes are realized.

Expert uncovers

An investigation by theweekly newspaper "Wochenzeitung" (WOZ) andtheonline magazine "Das Lamm" has now provided insights into the business of maintaining and modernizing aircraft from authoritarian regimes. It is no coincidence that the private jets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs were already stranded in the hangars of aircraft companies in 2022. After the sanctions against Russia and Belarus came into force, various private jets were stranded here, reports the weekly newspaper Wochenzeitung.

However, the customer base extends much further and mainly includes clients from authoritarian states and their rulers. Journalist Emmanuel Freudenthal, an expert in tracking aircraft movements, reports on the "Dictator Alert" website about around 190 aircraft owned by authoritarian regimes that he is monitoring.

Authoritarian states in the lead

The weekly newspaper "Wochenzeitung" quotes Freudenthal: "For some years now, I have been observing that Euro Airport is one of the most important destinations for aircraft owned by dictatorships." It is an open secret that the aircraft are maintained at the Amac Aerospace and Jet Aviation sites. However, it is unclear exactly what is being done to the aircraft and who is making money from it. "That's different now," says Freudenthal.

His research has revealed that most of the aircraft come from Gulf states such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman. However, the rulers of Libya, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are also among the customer base. Former employees are said to have confirmed that Amac Aerospace and Jet Aviation generate around half of their turnover from clients in these countries.

Nothing is impossible

In addition to maintenance, the conversion of the interior into flying luxury aircraft is also on the client's wish list. And in this area, Amac Aerospace and Jet Aviation are truly masters of their trade.

They deliver customized cabin designs made from the highest quality materials for their wealthy customers. Be it crocodile leather inserts, cherry or mahogany wood paneling, fine natural stone surfaces or screens with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). But that's not all. People who do not wish to be named report that missile defense systems from Elbit Systems, known as jammers, have also been installed in aircraft on several occasions in recent years.

Dubious sources of money

Of course, both companies earn a lot from the wishes of their dubious clients. Every twelve years, an aircraft has to undergo an extensive check. "During such checks, an aircraft is more or less completely dismantled, checked and reassembled," an informant explained to the weekly newspaper Wochenzeitung. For an Airbus 340-300 from Qatar, a routine job like this adds up to over 11,000 working hours. At an hourly rate of 130 francs, the labor costs alone amount to one and a half million francs. Then there are the material costs. An additional one and a half million francs and more quickly add up.

But: "We have nothing to hide," says the Jet Aviation management. When asked where they stand on human rights violations in countries that are clients of theirs, however, both companies remain mum. Neither company is willing to answer questions about the human rights situation in the countries of their customers.

The business model has been criticized by Martin Hilti, corruption and money laundering expert at the NGO Transparency International. He emphasizes the importance of due diligence and reporting obligations in cases of suspected money laundering, as it can hardly be denied that many private customers come from countries that are among the most corrupt in the world. The expert also criticizes the current legal situation in Switzerland. "Services related to luxury goods, such as the purchase and sale or maintenance of private jets, should be covered by the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which is unfortunately not yet the case," explains Hilti.