Having received Finland's first Citation X back in October 1999, International Petroleum Products (IPP) has recently added a second aircraft of this type. Both are operated by Cloudex of Finland.

The first Citation X was a pre-owned aircraft; the latest is brand new, reports Kari Kankkunen of Cloudex. The new aircraft has up until now been flying exclusively for IPP, but will begin charter availability next month. It has been flying all over Europe and the former CIS countries, and the two Citation Xs have clocked up 144 hours in the last month, Kankkunen reports. The new aircraft's next mission is to Japan.

So does Cloudex like the Citation X, EBAN inquired? "I've not flown many aeroplanes, but to be sure this is the best I have ever flown," Kankkunen asserted. "It is very fast, and the interior has gone down well with our customers." IPP chose the aircraft, but Cloudex had some input into the final decision to buy the Citation X.

EBAN was also keen to find out about flight operations in the former CIS: "We fly all over Russia, where IPP has customers, oil traders. We are flying so much there that it is normal. I am not the right person to analyse that. We do not need any handling, apart from in Moscow where we sometimes work with Aero Shannon, but mostly we do all our own handling. We know all the people in every airport. Slots are not a problem," was his positive outlook.

In a separate development, Kankkunen informed EBAN that Cloudex is to join forces with fellow Finnish management and charter providers Metrojet, which flies Beechcraft as air ambulances, and Airfix, who Kankkunen thinks might be the biggest independent maintenance centre in Finland. Based in Helsinki, Airfix provides services for Citations and Beechcraft, as well as having its own JAR 145 maintenance centre.