On 1 April 2010 RUAG Aviation takes over from Linth Air Service AG in Mollis (GL) the Helicopter Maintenance Division, including a staff of four. In so doing, RUAG increases its share of the helicopter market in Switzerland and moves closer to customers from Zurich, the Grisons and eastern Switzerland.

On 1 April 2010 RUAG Aviation, a division of RUAG Switzerland AG, will acquire from Linth Service AG the Helicopter Maintenance Division. The company will move into the modern hangar in Mollis and will take on the four helicopter mechanics as well as the existing operating equipment. RUAG Aviation thus expands its customer base for helicopters in Switzerland. The company will now be able to offer its customers locations for their helicopters, and in addition there are valuable synergies in the link-up with RUAG Aviation’s Helicopter Centre in Alpnach.

Peter Kolesnik, the owner of Linth Air Service AG which he founded in 2003, has decided to sell the Helicopter Maintenance Division to RUAG, in order to ensure long-term prospects for the business. Linth Air Service AG services the helicopter fleet of Heli Linth AG as well as helicopters of other commercial and private operators, in all about ten machines. Linth Air Service AG will focus in future on the management, operation and hangaring of business jets and helicopters. The company continues to be represented with these services at the Mollis site.

RUAG Aviation owns in Alpnach the largest military and civil helicopter maintenance facility in Switzerland, and with its 90-strong staff services – among others – all the helicopters of the Swiss Air Force. The company is a certified maintenance and repair centre for the French helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter. In addition RUAG Aviation offers maintenance services for Bell helicopters at its Oberpfaffenhofen (D) site.

RUAG is an international technology company for Aerospace (aviation and space travel) and Defence (security and defence technology) with its holding in Berne (CH). It has production sites in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Sweden and the USA. The company employs a staff of 7,000 worldwide: 4,000 of them in Switzerland, about ten percent of whom are apprentices.