Draft:GA Telesis

GA Telesis is an American multinational company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company primarily focuses on aviation aftermarket services such as component sales, aircraft maintenance, repair, overhaul, and air finance. In addition to its Fort Lauderdale headquarters, GA Telesis additionally has major offices and facilities in Finland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Founded in 2002 by Abdol Moabery and George E. Batchelor, GA Telesis provides services in the aviation sector, such as aircraft leasing, engine and component sales and repair, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services. GA Telesis has grown since its founding, with annual revenue exceeding $1 billion USD by 2019. The company is structured into five divisions serving aircraft components, leasing and investments, engine services, and maintenance and repair, with its fifth tapping into various digital innovations both within and outside of the aviation industry. Within aviation, its primary business is supplying airlines with used components, though has worked with original equipment manufacturers to distribute parts, most notably Honeywell Aerospace Technologies.

History
GA Telesis was founded on April 10, 2002, by George E. Batchelor and Abdol Moabery. Batchelor was the founder of Arrow Air, a major airline based out of Miami International Airport which flew between the United States and Latin America. Batchelor passed away in July 2002, less than a few months after GA Telesis was founded; his stake was acquired by Moabery after his passing. Moabery is a US Navy veteran who previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Aviation Systems International, and prior to that worked with in aviation trading with the Soros Fund Management-backed C-S Aviation Services. A graduate of Florida Atlantic University, Moabery additionally was a gubernatorial appointee of Florida Atlantic's board of trustees from 2011 to 2021, additionally holding its chairmanship from 2019 to 2021.

According to the company, GA Telesis was named to coincide with the first initials of both Batchelor and Moabery, with the word "Telesis" added to signify progress through human effort. Choosing to include their first names in the company's name was a request from Batchelor, though Moabery later convinced Batchelor to only include the initials.

An interview with Moabery by the magazine Jetrader placed his estimate at the year 2006 when he thought that GA Telesis first became widely noticed. The next year in 2007, GA Telesis announced a major investment when a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Co., today part of Bank of America, invested an undisclosed amount into the company for a 49% stake in the aviation firm. In the same Jetrader interview, Moabery explained that he chose an investment from Merrill Lynch so that he could stay in control in the company as opposed to other investment firms or a buyout by a major leasing company.

In 2011, the company significantly expanded its operations by acquiring Ultimate Aircraft Composites, a Fort Lauderdale-based firm which repairs and manufactures composite material components for commercial airliners, such as radomes, flight control surfaces, and doors. The company further expanded operations in 2013, this time in aircraft engine repair, where GA Telesis would acquire a part of Finnair's Engine Services division, rebrand it as GA Telesis Engine Services (or GATES for short), and employ 80 technicians. Its first engines that GATES would repair would include the General Electric CF6-80C2, CFM International CFM56-5B and -5C, and Pratt & Whitney PW2000. Later in 2012, GA Telesis partnered with Air China to form a joint venture, named GA Innovation China and based out of Beijing Capital International Airport, which would become China's first integrated aircraft trader of used aircraft in the middle of their lifespan. By 2015, GATES would hit 100 employees.

GA Telesis would ink an agreement with Boeing in 2014 to sell aircraft and engine material parts through a new section of Boeing's official parts marketplace. Under the agreement, Boeing would designate GA Telesis as a preferred partner of aircraft on ground repair services, freighter conversions, and engine programs, and enable GA Telesis to supply the Boeing marketplace with airframe and engine parts for all aircraft, regardless if Boeing manufactured it. Boeing would back parts for its aircraft with material certification, a one-year warranty, and a repair tag from a Boeing-audited repair facility. GA Telesis' Boeing marketplace page would initially service the 737 Classic, 737 Next Generation, 747, 757, 767, and 777, as well as the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, Airbus A320, A330 and A340, De Havilland Canada Dash 8, and Bombardier CRJ.

GA Telesis' financial divisions experienced growth, aided by the creation of an aviation investment fund with Wafra Capital Partners. The fund, named GA Telesis Aviation Investments (GAIN), raised $500 million by January 2014, with the two companies starting a second firm, named GA Telesis Aviation Investments 2 (GAIN 2), in August 2017, which would raise another $500 million.

By 2019, GA Telesis' total annual revenue topped $1 billion USD, with mid-2020 estimates predicting that GA Telesis would rake in $400 million during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, GA Telesis signed a three-year parts distribution agreement with Honeywell's aerospace division, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, to serve as the exclusive global distributor for the CFM International CFM56-5B variable bleed screw, excluding mainland China. Consequentially the Flight Solutions Group created a new subsidiary dedicated to distribution, named the Distribution Solutions Group. GA Telesis' consignment with Honeywell Aerospace enabled both companies to access a larger supply of used components and material to further both firms' business. The partnership with Honeywell expanded in 2023 to not only extend the bleed screw exclusivity but also include exclusive global distribution rights for the Flex Shafts for the CFM56-5B. As part of the seven year agreement, GATES' Helsinki facility would offer variable bleed screw upgrades to its engine customers. Another agreement with Honeywell in 2023 would make GA Telesis the global distributor of Honeywell's Finished Goods Inventory, leading to it being nominated by Honeywell as its 2023 Global Channel Partner of the Year.

2020 saw GA Telesis expand GATES to include a Special Procedures AeroEngine Hospital, or SPAH, in Helsinki, which initially serviced engines used on the Airbus A320 family as well as the Boeing 737, 747, and 767. In 2021, GA Telesis announced a partnership with Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) to construct a SPAH, at Wilmington Air Park in Clinton County, Ohio. By 2024, the Wilmington SPAH received certification from the American FAA and the European Union's EASA.

The following year in 2021, GA Telesis and another aviation firm, Constant Aviation, filed a lawsuit against the technology company Salesforce for disclosing information without permission or knowledge. The two companies claimed in their filing that Salesforce's Master Subscription Agreement did not cover the purposes that Salesforce allegedly used their data for, arguing that Salesforce's use of their data constituted intellectual property infringement and violations of the Defend Trade Secrets Act.

GA Telesis was one of the many aviation lessors affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the sanctions that Western countries imposed on Russian firms. The company leased two Airbus A319 s to Rossiya Airlines as well as their engines, which presently remain stranded in Russia to this day. The Irish unit of GA Telesis filed suit against Rossiya and its parent company Aeroflot in 2022 with the two narrowbody jets effectively stolen. However in 2023, GA Telesis settled its claims by confirming that it had received compensation from Russian insurance firm NSK, though did not disclose the amount, with GA Telesis releasing NSK, Rossiya, and Rossiya's parent company Aeroflot from its claims on the two A319s and their engines.

Structure
GA Telesis is split into five divisions: Flight Solutions Group, Leasing Investment Finance & Trading, GA Telesis Engine Services, Maintenance Repair and Overhaul, and Digital Innovation Group, abbreviated to FSG, LIFT, GATES, MRO, and DIG respectively. The company's primary facilities are located between two buildings near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, with a composite material repair shop on the west side and its primary headquarters and component solutions group on the south side. The company further has facilities in 14 US cities and 31 more worldwide.

GA Telesis' LIFT division hosts multiple arms and units. Since 2017, the company has operated an arm named for and focused on structured credit products, which offers airlines an inventory lease of spare parts for a fixed monthly rent. Under the LIFT division, GA Telesis additionally operates HALO AirFinance, a joint venture with Tokyo Century Corporation and InterVest Capital Partners. Formed in 2023, HALO's first major financing deal was a lease to Nauru Airlines of a Boeing 737-800 freighter converted from a former passenger aircraft. In 2024, HALO financed an investment vehicle managed by Crestone Air Partners and Atalaya Capital Management which would acquire two Airbus A320-200s.

GATES presently maintains two major facilities, its first located at Helsinki Airport at a former Finnair engine shop, and its second at Wilmington Air Park in Ohio through a joint venture with Air Transport Services Group. By 2023, the Wilmington facility, which opened a Special Procedures Aeroengine Hospital (SPAH), received its Part 145 certification.

The MRO division on GA Telesis specializes in both component repair as well as carbon fiber composite aircraft shops, in addition to a landing gear shop which often detects and implements fixes to corrosion. The landing gear group has been noted by aviation magazines for its fast growth, seeing 149 percent growth from its founding in 2019 to 2023, and composing over 20 percent of the MRO division's revenue. The division in 2021 also added a radome testing facility, and earlier a 37-foot autoclave to its composite repair facility.

GA Telesis' Digital Innovation Group oversees activities related to artificial intelligence, including the founding of Blockrails in 2022, a subscription service utilizing Blockchain technology for real estate transactions.

Shareholders
Just over 40% of the company is held directly by Abdol Moabery.

GA Telesis' initial investment by Tokyo Century Corporation, a Japanese financial services company, was a 20% stake in the company. In 2018, All Nippon Airways and Tokyo Century acquired a 39% stake in GA Telesis, resulting in an increase of Tokyo Century's stake in the company to 49.2% and giving All Nippon Airways an initial stake to 10%. The stake that Tokyo Century and All Nippon Airways acquired was formerly owned by Bank of America through its subsidiary Global Principal Finance.

Corporate governance
Since its founding, Moabery has held the title of President and CEO within the company. GA Telesis is organized under a limited liability company.

GA Telesis' divisions additionally hold their own presidents. To date, the Flight Solutions Group is led by Jim Sokol, LIFT by Marc Cho, the Engine Services facility in Helsinki by Gunnar Sigurfinnsson, and the MRO division by Pastor Lopez, with Jason Reed leading the Digital Innovation Group.