Germany's ProAir is putting a King Air F90 on its AOC. "This should be completed by mid-August and will help ProAir to serve an expanded customer base for passenger flights and our automotive cargo business," says gm Andreas Wald. The aircraft, based at Stuttgart, will be available 24-7, he adds.

Wald says 2010 has proved a successful year for ProAir after a "crises influenced" 2009. "It is a sign of a generally recovering economy that all segments are back to normal or doing even better than before 2009," he adds.

The Ukraine's Challenge Aero and ProAir have stepped up and formalised their international cooperation with the launch of the Challenge-Pro Air Foundation.

ProAir's Elmar Monreal says: "The formal union through Challenge-Pro will build on a number of successful projects we have carried out together."

Challenge Aero's Sergei Nikiforov says: "The partnership combines an in-depth knowledge of the Ukrainian, Russian and European markets and increases the number of handling departments throughout these regions. We are working on developing business from new segments of the markets as well as improving existing services."