After two years of careful planning and research, Share Plane of Switzerland has launched its own fractional ownership scheme. While its current fleet comprises a lone Pilatus PC-12, the company is not short of ambition. Mike van Berkel, Share Plane's ceo, said: "We hope to have a fleet of about five aircraft within two years. The second PC-12 is half sold and we're targeting the end of this year for the completion of the sale of the remaining two shares." European Business Air News spoke to Mike van Berkel about the emergence in Switzerland of a new way of plane-sharing. Van Berkel said: "At first we were only going to operate with one aircraft but now, following enquiries left, right and centre, we think we're going to take it and grow it. If you look at the success that NetJets has had and you consider that we're half as expensive as those guys - with similar performance - I think we should have a good go at it." The concept as such is quite simple. Customers enter the Share Plane programme by purchasing 'user rights'. These rights allow the participant to use the aircraft for 125 flight hours per quarter share per year (for the time being, Share Plane is only offering quarter shares but says it will be looking, in the near future, to offer eighths). In addition, a monthly management fee covers fixed costs like hangarage, insurance, pilots and dispatch. Finally, for each occupied hour, an hourly fee is paid. While the company is incorporated in Zug - which is situated between Zurich and Lucerne and considered by van Berkel to be the tax equivalent of Delaware in the US - practical operations are based at Zurich airport and Altenrhein airport, Lake Constance. Van Berkel said: "Officially the company was launched about two months ago but for two years I've been working 'on and off' on this concept. While the first aircraft has been operated only for one large Swiss conglomerate, it is now my role to expand our customer base." EBAN asked Mike van Berkel what his research had uncovered. He said: "In Switzerland industrial companies, for example, are facing all sorts of pressures to reduce their cost structure. Labour is very expensive and is something which has these companies looking to the East. They are all looking either to the former eastern German bloc, to Poland, to the Czech Republic, to Hungary or even further east and they're looking for production cites to buy and to produce and to outsource. "The problem that the ceos have, lies in taking a long trip to get there and only managing to see one plant. With Share

Plane, these people would have the ability to fly to Poland in the morning, have their meeting and come back in the evening. Alternatively they might go to a second plant on the next day and so on. Only in this way can they get a good overview of the market and really gauge where the opportunities exist."\rVan Berkel also makes the point that flying with an airline from a major airport invariably incurs a much larger outlay of time. He said: "Some companies are an hour away from Zurich airport but only 15 minutes drive away from a reasonably equipped airport with say ILS and customs. That's the opportunity that we want to make use of. There are five airports that are served by the major carriers - Zurich, Geneva, Bern, Basel and Lugano. Besides that we have at least another half a dozen well equipped airports and another five to 10 runways which are okay for the PC-12 but don't have ILS or customs." Technically you can fly 1,600 miles with the PC-12 but in terms of comfort and quality of travel, says Share Plane, you would not want to fly for more than two to three hours. That said, explains van Berkel, if you draw an imaginary circle around Switzerland, with a radius of two and a half to three hours, "you basically cover 90 per cent of Europe's GDP".\r So although Moscow and Athens are a bit out of reach, anything that deals with Italy, France, northern Spain, Benelux, the London area, Holland, Germany, lower Denmark, southern parts of Sweden, and east to the Baltic states, is fair game. According to van Berkel, there are some destinations which his company envisages will be more popular than others. He told EBAN: "We will have a lot of destinations going East, but secondarily we are looking at linking smaller destinations between Switzerland and Italy (eg Milan, Venice, Genoa), between here and the eastern parts of France (eg Annecy, Grenoble, Lyons) and then between here and the Rhein valley (eg Cologne, Dusseldorf)."\rWith a cabin volume of about 10 cubic metres (which comfortably sits six passengers), Share Plane highlights this aspect as one of its most marketable. Secondly, it refers us to operating costs. Van Berkel said: "The operating cost of a single engine turboprop is a lot lower than that, for example, of a King Air 200. With a new design, the technology and experience have been incorporated into this aircraft and I guess that's where the Pilatus' reliability and craftsmanship comes into play." One area where the PC-12 compares less favourably is on speed. Van Berkel said: "We counter that with the argument that in order to synchronise the whole air traffic, everyone flies what is 250 knots maximum in the pattern. On short trips within Europe, the value does not come out of flying 10 minutes at Mach 0.8, the value lies in the fact that you are capable of taking off when you want, instead of having to wait one hour at the airport. The second value that comes into play is that we fly directly to your destination versus flying Mach 0.78 to a hub. So that's the value that we communicate."\rAsked about Share Plane's main target customers, van Berkel was quite clear. He said: "Firstly, the mid-sized companies. We're looking at companies in the range of about £100 million revenues per year which are predominantly family-owned. If they're family-owned, the advantage is that there's one boss who decides; if he decides he wants a corporate aircraft, the decision is much easier to make than justifying it to your share-holders. The whole point about corporate aviation in Europe is that not very many people have caught on to the fact that it is a productivity tool. "Secondly there is the smaller segment, as I would call it, which consists of the small entrepreneurial companies, the one-man shows which have services to offer which are unique but have to travel throughout Europe and are dependent on mobility." \rFor the time being, nonetheless, van Berkel's feet are firmly on the ground. He told EBAN: "Firstly we'll try and get this thing started in Switzerland; after that we might start thinking where would it be smart to place a second hub. England is one consideration, Germany another and Italy another; but that's pretty far down the road."