Dominique Trinquet and Thierry Boutsen of Monaco-based Boutsen Aviation, have spoken to EBAN about the latest sales and acquisitions at the company.

Said Trinquet: "We had a King Air E90 come to us from a French individual in the south of France. It has been sold to a company in Grenoble for private corporate use already. It was a 1972 model, we didn't make any special maintenance or completion changes.

"We also now have a Beech 200 which came from South Africa. It has 5,500 hours and we do have some quite good contacts for it. It arrived six months ago and has had a new paint job and refitted interior, and maintenance has just been completed.

Thierry Boutsen bought the King Air in December last year. The interior is white with grey stripes, he confided, made from very high quality grey leather. "We stripped it completely," said Boutsen, "and did all the five year items on it: Propeller overhaul, new hatch, checked all the service bulletins and air worthiness directives had been applied - some were missing, so we did that too. The aircraft is pretty much at zero hours overall, everything except the engines."

Most of the maintenance for the 1980-dated aircraft was completed in Cannes by a company called Azure Aero Assistance. Boutsen is big fan of the King Air, it seems. "The King Air is the only turboprop that you can get serviced everywhere on the planet, it is the most sold turboprop. Whether it's a C90, or 200, or E90, it's all the same aircraft and you can find spare parts everywhere. It is the most used turboprop, very solid. I would compare it to a Mercedes - comfortable and good quality."

There are numerous King Airs based around Monaco. Boutsen said: "You can come to Cannes Airport with anything up to a Challenger, so there is no real link between this and the popularity of the King Air in the region. And in fact, the Cheyenne is also popular here, more as a pilot-owner aircraft.

Boutsen reports that he is "astonished" by the way business is going at the moment. "We had a very slow start because I was still racing and I was doing this (aviation) on the side. I have been full time for two years, and since we started the operation we have sold 31 aircraft. We have sold about seven or eight aircraft where people come to us and say I want to buy a Citation or I want to buy a Learjet, and I say OK, I will get back to you in two months, and it's there outside their door.

"People who have bought small aircraft are buying bigger in France at the moment," he continued, "and we have also new owners - we have recently sold two new aircraft to first time owners who came to private aviation because they like the idea and they were fed up with waiting in queues and in over congested airports."

EBAN asked whether fractional ownership was impacting on Boutsen's business, and he reported that the stiff-necked French were less than enamoured by the idea:

"We are not in the US. In the US, you take an aeroplane like you take a taxi. In France, people like their toy. When they own an aircraft they do not want to share with anybody, it is like a jewel, they love it and they want to go flying in it exclusively. It is difficult with this mentality to accept share schemes. Probably in five or ten years it will take off.

"Fractional ownership is not very popular here, and I don't think it is going to be very popular with the people I am dealing with at the moment. It is good for big companies, but not for individuals."

Boutsen keeps a high media profile, which, coupled with his illustrious sporting past, is a major asset to the company.

Finally, Boutsen reports he is selling his own King Air 200, his mode of transport between races prior to the crash that ended his career and left him with serious injuries. "I do not have anything for myself now," he said. "I am not doing enough flying. I bought this for my own business reasons - I used to own and fly aircraft when I was in Formula One because I used to need to travel to places every week. I was flying alone all the time, and it was great, I had the time to do it, but not any more, I have no time.

"Flying time (between races) was not very long, always within Europe, an hour and a half maximum. You would get there the day before practice. Flying makes you fresh, makes your brain fresh."