Done. Kick-off held 28 August. Owner matrix closed for all six workstreams. Town hall held Friday 4 September. Programme management handed from Viktor Lieb to Gerhard Klammerberger.
Starting 11 September. All six workstreams begin delivery work on Friday 11 September — including every Leon activity — and then run on a fixed weekly slot per stream. The opening two weeks went into the owner matrix and into informing both organisations, which is the right order and the reason the streams begin now rather than in week one. This document is rebaselined to that start date.
Unchanged. Leon live 22 September. Pilot tail 29 September. Owners live 1 October. NBAA 20–22 October. Full integration 31 December.
Still open. The contract clearances raised at kick-off — trip support notice period, Jet Insight term and the Part 135 trading name — are with the respective owners and carry to Gerhard with dates.
AXIS Aviation is a minority strategic shareholder in EA Americas (Elitacquisition LLC, FAA Part 135, Michigan). The agreements are signed and the brand licence is in place. The business becomes AXIS Aviation Americas as the sole market-facing brand; EA Americas disappears from public view.
The programme has four things to deliver:
Horizon: full integration by year end 2026.
AXIS currently holds 12.5% Company Percentage / 25% Preferred Sharing Ratio, with an option to reach 75% by 2028/29. US operational leadership is unchanged for now. This programme integrates systems and processes, not legal entities.
| Aircraft | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Challenger 3500 | 2022 | In service · owner is also a principal shareholder |
| Citation X | 2006 | In service · owner is also a principal shareholder |
| Citation Ultra | 1998 | In service · owned by a dealer |
| Challenger 850 | 2001 | Joining end of August — designated pilot tail |
Scheduling and charter quoting run on Jet Insight, a North American product. Trip support is outsourced to a third party. Owner reporting is a manually maintained monthly spreadsheet. Invoices arrive centrally with the US finance team and are tracked on a payment list. Email runs on Microsoft 365 under ea-americas.com.
Leon for scheduling and operations. Aircraft Management 4.0 for owner visibility and reporting — real-time operational status, all third-party invoices accessible, structured monthly reporting. AXIS in-house dispatch as the operational backbone, with a dedicated US team over time.
Headquarters in Switzerland, operating there under NCC OPS — there is no Swiss AOC. AOCs held by AXIS Aviation Austria GmbH (A-172), AXIS Aviation San Marino S.r.l (SM041) and AXIS Aviation Africa (Pty) Ltd (SACAA.AOC.0201). Further presence through AXIS Aviation AG and AXIS Aviation Asia Pte Ltd. AXIS is an asset manager, not an operator. Founded 2014, part of AX Aero Group.
Earlier drafts referring to a "Swiss AOC" are wrong and must not be reused. The fleet figure also needs a single answer before anything goes public: the company overview states 40+ aircraft, the announcement text says approximately 50.
Six workstreams, each with one named owner per side. The matrix was closed at kick-off and is live in the shared Planner board. Overall programme management sits with Gerhard Klammerberger, who takes the role over from Viktor Lieb. Sponsor on the AXIS side unchanged.
| WS | Workstream | Owners | Position at 8 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|
| WS5 | Technology & platform — critical | Nick & Kerstin | Starts 11 Sep · Leon live 22 Sep |
| WS3 | Operations — critical | Renee & Aron | Starts 11 Sep · process mapping to 25 Sep |
| WS4 | Finance — critical | Nick & Kerstin (Sally) | Starts 11 Sep · gap analysis to 25 Sep |
| WS1 | Change & communications | Richard & Kerstin | Town hall done · FAQ, pulse and brand assets from 11 Sep |
| WS2 | IT & infrastructure | Nick & Yannick | Starts 11 Sep · cutover Tue 29 Sep |
| WS6 | Commercial & procurement | Renee & Brad | Starts 22 Sep · first deliverables 31 Oct |
No process is simply "taken over". Every process is first run jointly, then handed over. It is slower, and it is the only version that works without leaving resentment behind.
A gold edge marks the three workstreams on the critical path to NBAA.
Position at 8 September: kick-off and town hall are done, all streams begin on 11 September, and the end dates below are unchanged. With kick-off on 28 August and the switchover in early September, September is a partial month. The first complete month in the new structure is October, and that report lands on 10 November — after NBAA. So what we demonstrate in Las Vegas is the platform running live, which is the actual difference anyway. Only WS5, WS3 and WS4 sit on this chain.
Not on the critical path: branding, LinkedIn, website, mail migration, procurement, cross-selling. These are visible and feel urgent, which is exactly why they pull attention off the chain. If capacity gets tight, cut here — never at Leon.
The later kick-off consumed the original buffer, and the first two weeks went into the owner matrix and the town hall. That was the right order — but with everything starting on 11 September the chain from here is continuous and short: Leon live 22 September, pilot tail loaded 29 September, owners live 1 October, with nothing spare between the links. The kick-off draft allowed roughly five weeks for the same sequence; it now has twenty days. If Leon is not live on the 22nd, the decision to take is the substitute tail, not a later date. Both principal shareholders have seen the platform and are open to it.
The notice period on the outsourced trip support contract is still unknown. At 90 days, the exit decision has to be made by the end of September for the year-end target to hold — which leaves roughly three weeks. It carries to Gerhard with a hard date, not an open one.
Gold is the critical path. Green is done. Everything in the taupe band runs in parallel and can absorb delay — that is what makes it the right place to cut when capacity gets tight. The bars show the streams as they actually start, not as they were first drafted at kick-off.
Every bar is rebaselined to a start of 11 September — the workstreams and all Leon activity alike. Nothing in the kick-off draft that was drawn against late August or early September survives here, because none of that work began then. The end dates are untouched: Leon live 22 September, pilot tail 29 September, owners live 1 October, NBAA, year end. The consequence is visible rather than argued — three working weeks stand in front of the 1 October gate, and WS6 is deliberately scheduled behind it.
| Phase | When | Content | Gate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 — Kick-off | Fri 28 Aug | Owners assigned, pilot tail decided, Leon procurement triggered, approved language distributed, contracts sent for review | Owner matrix complete | Passed — matrix closed. Contract answers still pending |
| 1 — Announce | 31 Aug – 5 Sep | Announcement Mon 31 Aug, town hall Fri 4 Sep, FAQ live, workstream kick-offs | Both teams informed, FAQ live | Passed — both teams informed. FAQ and weekly pulse start with the streams |
| 2 — Switchover | 11–29 Sep | Leon live 22 Sep, email cutover Tue 29 Sep, LinkedIn and website, pilot tail loaded by 29 Sep | New addresses live, pilot tail in Leon | Starts 11 Sep |
| 3 — Go-live | 29 Sep – 10 Oct | Pilot tail flying in the new structure, owners onto the platform by 1 Oct, September figures 10 Oct | Owners have live access | Open — dates held |
| 4 — External | Oct / NBAA | External communication, trade show appearance as an integrated business | Only if gate 3 is met | Open |
| 5 — Full migration | to 31 Dec | Remaining fleet in Leon and on the platform, finance aligned, US ops concept, procurement synergies | All tails in production | Open |
Phase 4 is deliberately tied to gate 3. If the September report is not delivered, NBAA communicates the partnership rather than the integration. That is a decision taken in advance, not an excuse made later.
This is where integrations fail. Not on the technology.
| When | What | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 28 Aug | Kick-off and leadership pre-brief on both sides, including approved language and draft FAQ | Call, 90 min |
| Mon 31 Aug, early US time | Written announcement, sent simultaneously to both organisations | |
| Fri 4 Sep ✓ | Town hall held — the faces and the vision | Video, 45 min, both teams together |
| Fri 11 Sep | All six workstreams start, fixed weekly slot per stream, pairings assigned | Per workstream |
| From 11 Sep | FAQ live and weekly status pulse running — starts with the streams | Shared channel |
| Tue 29 Sep | Email cutover — Monday or Tuesday only, never before a weekend | IT |
| Weekly | Status pulse — same structure, same day | Email + channel |
| Monthly | Progress against milestones, honestly including delays | Short town hall, 15 min |
| Min | Content |
|---|---|
| 0–5 | Why we are doing this. The strategic reason, in plain words |
| 5–12 | Who AXIS is: fleet, AOCs, locations, people. Pictures, not charts |
| 12–20 | The vision for AXIS Aviation Americas — what an owner and a charter client experience in 2027 |
| 20–28 | Live look at the platform — exactly what convinced the shareholders |
| 28–35 | What changes concretely. And explicitly: what does not change |
| 35–45 | Open questions, unfiltered |
Rules. Questions can be submitted anonymously in advance. Every submitted question gets addressed, including the uncomfortable ones. Anything that can't be answered gets a date. Record it for anyone on duty.
Nobody will ask these out loud. Everybody is thinking them. If the town hall doesn't answer them, the corridor will.
1. Is my job safe? 2. Does my day change — my manager, my tasks, my hours? 3. What happens to the clients I have looked after for years?
All three belong in the 28–35 block, answered as concretely as the facts allow. Where the answer isn't settled yet, say exactly that.
Every affected role on the US side gets a named counterpart at AXIS. The pair does three things, in this order:
No step gets skipped. The most common cause of quiet resistance is a process that migrated overnight without anyone asking why it was built that way.
Email for anything binding. Town hall for vision and questions. Shared Teams channel for pace and daily work. A notice in the hangar — ramp and maintenance crews don't read email. One-to-one conversations by line managers for anyone directly affected.
First tail in Leon. First report out of the platform. First jointly sourced charter. Each one marked briefly and visibly. Progress nobody notices motivates nobody.
The exit from the outsourced trip support. Anything to do with people's jobs. Migration dates that aren't confirmed. Deal terms beyond "minority strategic shareholder".
| Risk | Effect | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Leon not live by 22 September | Every downstream date moves — pilot tail, owner go-live, NBAA | Report the 22 Sep date in every weekly pulse from now; it is the one date the chain hangs off |
| All streams start 11 Sep against a 1 Oct gate | Owners are not live by 1 October, NBAA story collapses | Substitute tail already agreed as fallback — trigger it rather than hoping |
| Trip support notice period still unknown | Year-end target unreachable | Hard date on the answer, carried to Gerhard |
| Jet Insight term and notice still unknown | Paying twice, or forced parallel running | Hard date on the answer, carried to Gerhard |
| Project management handover mid-flight | Open items lose their owner between the two roles | Contract clearances, Planner board and status pulse transfer explicitly, in writing |
| New trading name on a Part 135 certificate | Possible FSDO filing requirement | Clear with US counsel, week 1 |
| Mail switch on the wrong weekday | Client emails lost, trust damaged | Monday or Tuesday only |
| After-hours coverage not ready at handover | Direct client impact | Prove coverage before terminating |
| Fleet figure inconsistent across materials | Credibility risk at NBAA | Settle one number before external comms |
| Capacity — three key roles carry this alongside the day job | Everything slips at once | Deliberately slow the non-critical streams |
| Historical data not extractable from Jet Insight | No year-on-year comparability in reporting | Test export options early |
90 minutes, Friday 28 August. Held as planned. Kept here as the record of what was agreed, and of what was agreed but has not yet been delivered.
| Min | Item | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | Brief, target picture, horizon | Shared understanding |
| 10–20 | The critical path | Everyone knows what actually counts |
| 20–45 | Six workstreams — name an owner on each side | Owner matrix complete |
| 45–55 | Pilot tail decision including fallback | Decision minuted |
| 55–70 | Communications plan, town hall date, approved language | Date fixed, roles assigned |
| 70–85 | Watch items — who clears which contract by when | Named owners with dates |
| 85–90 | Working rhythm, cadence, status format | Steering slot in the calendar |
The record of the opening week. Retained so the gap between plan and actual stays visible rather than being quietly overwritten.
Run the kick-off. Close the owner matrix. Trigger Leon procurement — the first step on the critical path, and it cannot wait over the weekend. Send the three open contracts (trip support, Jet Insight, Part 135 trading name) for review, each with a response date. Put the steering call in the calendar for the next sixteen weeks.
Announcement goes out, simultaneously to both organisations. Line managers have already been briefed on Friday. Start town hall preparation and open the FAQ.
Workstream kick-offs for WS3, WS4 and WS5 — the three on the critical path. Assign the pairings. Chase Leon licences: they have to be live by 4 September.
Town hall dry run, including the live platform segment. Brand assets to IT so mail signatures are ready ahead of the cutover. Collect anonymous questions and prepare answers for all of them.
Town hall held on the Friday rather than the planned Thursday. Run the town hall. Move every question from the floor into the FAQ, unedited. First status pulse the same afternoon. Gate check: will Leon be live tomorrow, or does the whole chain move? Write down the honest answer, not the hopeful one.
This document was the working basis for the kick-off and is now the handover basis for the programme. Updated 8 September 2026. Owner matrix closed, town hall held, programme management with Gerhard Klammerberger. All streams start 11 September. The one date that outranks everything else in this document is 22 September — Leon live.