The first of ten Dassault Falcons has been delivered to NetJets Europe. The wide body business jet arrived at London Luton Airport in the second week of May. \rEBAN was on hand as it disgorged such luminaries as Richard Santulli, chairman and ceo of Executive Jet and NetJets Europe, his brother Vincent Santulli, chairman of NetJets Europe, and Jim Jacobs, vice chairman of Executive Jet. Graham Dearing, sales director NetJets Europe, was also present.\rRichard Santulli informed EBAN about the ongoing process of introducing the USA's largest fractional ownership player into a strange and alien aviation environment, also known as Europe. \r"In our first year here we have invested US$18 million to set up the infrastructure and service, such as we have in the US, to ensure the same level of safety and service. \rOur customers would like us to have a programme in Asia and South America, but we won't do that without setting up the infrastructure first. \r"We have spent 30 months understanding and examining the European market."\rSo, EBAN asked, what are the differences that necessitate this kind of attention? \r"The US is cheaper for aircraft, so we have to make our rates interchangeable; for example, if you fly for an hour in the US, it would be equivalent to, say, 0.6 European hours. Statistics show that 100 per cent of European NetJets owners interchange and fly in the US programme, and 40 per cent of US NetJet's owners fly with the European programme."\r"Europe also has fewer airports, more stringent airspace legislation, and a slots system. Access to airports is difficult," Richard Santulli said. "We can't even get into Heathrow, or very rarely," added Vincent Santulli. "It's not possible to get as close to your final destination."\rContinued Richard Santulli: "The first three trips with a customer are always the most difficult, as we build up profiles of what our customers like, so of course setting up operations in a new environment is difficult.\r"Warren Buffet (president of Berkshire Hathaway, who bought NetJets in 1998) said to me when we were considering moving into Europe, "How many competitors are there?" I replied, "None," which was true at the time. "I don't want there to be any in ten years, either," he said. We are in this business for good, we have committed nearly $1 billion over the next years."\rThe Falcons on order, all to be delivered by 2002, are valued at US$250 million, and it is expected that when the tenth aircraft arrives, the total NetJets Europe fleet will number 50 aircraft. \rThe new model will join the Cessna Citation SIIs and VIIs and the Hawker 800XPs already present in Europe. \rAs reported in last November's EBAN, Bombardier has also launched a fractional programme by the name of Flexjets Europe. There are also many smaller fractional operations currently in existence around Europe.