International Petroleum Product (IPP) has received Finland's first Citation X. It is the third to be registered in Europe, the first two being in Turkey and the UK respectively. The pre-owned aircraft was registered in early August and serves as a replacement for the company's Learjet 55, which IPP had operated for the previous two and a half years and has recently sold. By May 2000, the company says it plans to have a brand new example of the long-range business jet, serial number 115.

Managing director, Gennadi Timtchenko, told EBAN the company's corporate needs are quite simple. He said: "We need a fast plane because we hate to fly - and this is the fastest plane that I know. A lot of our business is connected to Siberia and other places in Europe, and so far the Citation X has been working out well." Clearly, for IPP, speed is of paramount importance but that's not to say that other factors do not count. Timtchenko said: "If you compare it with Raytheon's Hawker 800XP, we would spend one more hour on a flight to Siberia and back in a Hawker. That said, there is also little noise inside and while it is very comfortable for eight people, nine can also fly quite easily." \rTo gauge the initial performance of the Citation X, EBAN spoke to chief pilot, Kari Kankkunen, about his first impressions of the aircraft. He told us: "We have now flown 90 hours and the reliability has been 100 per cent except for one very small problem. Already, we have flown to Siberia, and almost every four days to destinations in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland." He added: "Obviously, compared to the Lear 55 it is much more powerful. You can fly flight level 450, Mach 0.91 and you climb direct to 450 in almost any conditions. It doesn't climb very fast between flight level 100 and 300 but after that you get a lot of power. While the cabin has a much lower noise level, the cockpit is also a lot quieter for sure." Kankkunen said IPP looked at Lear 60s, Continentals and Hawker Horizons before choosing the Citation X. Of the latter two, he said: "Both are very good planes but delivery after three or four years was a problem." \rOf the current business aviation situation at home, Kankkunen added that Finland currently plays host to approximately 10 business jets, with, as far as he knows, no imminent acquisitions looming. The operating company for IPP's Citation X is Cloudex Oy.