The agreement covers the potential purchase of up to five H145s with the firm order of one.

Cessna Aircraft Company, a subsidiary of Textron Aviation Inc, recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the maiden flight of the model 525 CitationJet prototype. Since its launch, eight variants have been certified, and Cessna has delivered more than 1,800 model 525 aircraft around the world, more than 360 of which are in the EMEA region.

Private charter operators in Europe and the Middle East have been left seething with anger over the bureaucratic muddle which worsened the financial fall-out from Iceland's volcano crisis.