A small French airline named Air Saint Tropez has recently com-menced operations, offering passengers a good view of the Cote d'Azur scenery with five daily return flights from Nice Cote d'Azur to Saint Tropez La Mole airport. Created by Eric Chambard, Air Saint Tropez is intended to offer passengers a speedy 20 minute connection between Nice and the bay of Saint Tropez, a journey that often takes an hour and a half by road. A free minibus connects La Mole directly to the centre of Saint Tropez. \rAir Saint Tropez was created by Eric Chambard in April 1998 but the company began operations last June. Chambard saw the opportunity to create the airline after the city of Saint Tropez refused approval for its heliport to continue operations for environmental reasons and the "negative feelings" of those living nearby about the noise of the helicopters. A company spokesman told EBAN: "Eric started the airline as he thinks that there is a real marketing opportunity in linking Nice Airport and the Saint Tropez Gulf, especially in summer.\r"Two reasons can be given: First of all, an important number of potential passengers, and secondly, the difficulties of the road traffic in summer season. It takes about an hour and a half to reach Saint Tropez from Nice." Air Saint Tropez consists of a small team of five people, including three pilots. The airline operates a Cessna Caravan which can can comfortably carry nine passengers and a large amount of luggage. The airline operates throughout the summer season until the end of September, and the aircraft is available for charter when services end. \r According to the company spokesman, Chambard is confident about his airline, and may add a route to Marseilles for next year: "Eric is rather satisfied with the results of this summer season, even though it's a real challenge to create a new company."