Luxaviation UK is pleased with its recently-added Praetor 600 and is continuing to experience steady ad hoc charter demand.

“The charter demand has more or less morphed from the small jets into the midsize or super midsize,” reveals CEO George Galanopoulos. “Clients are increasingly seeking larger aircraft and are often willing to pay extra for the additional comfort and the range too.

“The Praetor gives superior technology. Personally I love the Challengers, particularly the six series so 604, 605 and 650. I believe they provide the best value for money. Challengers are great, reliable aircraft, but the technology is a little old. The Praetor, on the other hand, is fly-by-wire: the overheads, the LED controller... it’s very nice. It’s not as wide as the Challenger, but it’s got the range – 4,000nm. London-New York or Dubai-London is no problem. It’s a beautiful jet.

“The smallest cabin we have in the fleet is the Phenom 300. That is an amazing aircraft and for us is the most popular light jet ever built.”

Luxaviation has Citation Excels that are always busy, offering good value for charter. It operates those with two crew – there is no space or need for a flight attendant – then the next level up is the Praetor. The firm has one G-registered and one on T7, both based in the UK.

Galanopoulos continues: “This year has gone as we expected it to, adding three or four more aircraft in the UK as well as new additions worldwide. We are hopeful to finalise a couple more before year end, so we are meeting our targets.

“We are very client-driven. Some people come to us for management and we have a very good name in the market; we have been doing it for years. We have some unique selling points as a company, but it’s very much the owner who dictates what is purchased. We advise as to what the options are, but the final decision rests with them. We are hoping for more of the same: continuing to provide good service and add more aircraft. We don’t have overly extravagant plans because it’s a very hard industry to change. Some people come to market with new business models with unified fleets and so on, but this is hard. The industry relies on owners buying and trusting operators with their asset.”

Luxaviation UK is always looking to expand. Galanopoulos finishes by saying that, considering all the uncertainty around the world, tariffs and politics, the business is holding up well. “Uncertainty can spill over to us as we are a luxury, but we haven’t really seen a drop-off. It’s quite stable, and we expect it to pick up further.”