With 14 orders and commitments to date and a total of three ACJs due to be delivered by the end of this year (four if you include the Al Kharafi aircraft), Airbus says that, during the first couple of years in the market place, it has made a "good start" to the ACJ programme. This declaration comes just after the ACJ has picked up its basic certification from the European JAA. \rAirbus Industrie spokesman, David Velupillai, told European Business Air News: "The challenge for us has been to have aircraft to deliver because the A320 family is the fastest selling airliner and it's still in very strong demand with the airlines. What we've found is that some of our customers have not been too keen to wait the two or three years that it would have taken to get an aircraft in that strong demand environment, so what we're doing is making available several aircraft slots a year for ACJ customers, which is improving the availability and improving our chances of selling. "We see a total market, roughly speaking, of about 24 aircraft in this size category each year. I'm talking top of the line, us against the BBJ. And longer-term, I think having a more guaranteed availability of aircraft to sell, then we will be able to achieve that."\rIn addition to the two ACJs which are currently being outfitted by Jet Aviation, Basel and Lufthansa Technik, Hamburg, a third has been ordered by DaimlerChrysler. Velupillai said: "With an interior which is essentially business class, that aircraft will be shuttling executives back and forth between Pontiac, Wisconsin and Stuttgart, Germany. Because of its airline-type interior, all business class, it is being fitted out by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Airbus, our German partner. It makes sense because it is responsible for fitting out the interiors of the A320 family, in any case. If it was a vip interior and you wanted specialist work, it would not be so logical."\rReceived in mid-August, the type certificate for the ACJ is not new, but rather is an amendment of the existing A319 type certificate required by additional modifications imple-mented in the Corporate Jetliner model of the aircraft. The modifications that required re-certification included the installation of up to six auxiliary fuel tanks (ACTs), which give the A319CJ up to 6,300 nautical miles of range. In addition, the ACJ is certificated to fly at cruise altitudes of 41,000 feet and, in order to better accommodate the weight distribution of the vip interiors, the aircraft has been certificated with a forward extension of its centre of gravity range. In all other respects, Airbus says the ACJ is the same as the commercial A319, ensuring that the aircraft retains a high residual value due to the ease with which it can be integrated into a commercial airline fleet.