In early June this year, Comtel-Air's newly purchased Falcon 900 was still undergoing maintenance work for items such as the installation of its satellite phone.

Come September, the aircraft had already made a host of trips to destinations such as Edinburgh, Miami, Moscow, Teterboro, Athens, and as far afield as the Chinese border with Russia.

EBAN spoke to Comtel-Air's Wolfgang Kaempf, sales and operations, about the experiences of the Vienna-based charter operator. Said Kaempf: "After a test flight on June 13, the Falcon 900 was first chartered to Malaga by an Austrian customer.

"We had a very good response for this flight - the passengers were particularly pleased with the interior and the flight attendant service."

In July alone, Comtel-Air notched up 110 flight hours. Kaempf said: "We have people using the 900 for holiday trips, we have Middle East and Swiss customers using it primarily for business, but the majority of our clients - almost 50 per cent, I would say - are Russians. The Russian market is definitely increasing.

"Austria is the most educated country on the eastern side of Western Europe.

"It only takes two and a half hours to fly to Moscow. I would say it's the new destination to Russia from the western world."

In the few months in which the 900 has been flying, Comtel-Air has also come to the assistance of an American family holidaying in Europe, who required an urgent flight back to Miami because of a family emergency.

Despite a quiet middle-to-late August for the 900, Kaempf says the future of the aircraft looks very promising.

Also on Comtel-Air's charter menu are two Citation IIIs and a Citation I. Said Kaempf: "The Citation l is less popular than the IIIs, flying two or three times a week.

"The Citation IIIs are almost fully booked five days a week, for flights all over Europe."

Comtel does not have any immediate plans for the further addition of aircraft but says a high priority now is to update its website and brochures.

Kaempf explained: "We're not buying any aircraft in the near future because the Falcon was so expensive. However, we would like to work on our customer-base. At the current moment, most of our flights come through brokers.

"I would like to interest Austrian customers into booking directly with us. To this end, we are constructing a new home-page on our website, in German and English.

"We are also designing new brochures, which will give potential customers all the information they desire."

In conclusion, said Kaempf: "Austrian businessmen are normally willing to take business jets because of a lack of scheduled flights etc. They know the advantages.

"The thing we have to do now is send out the new brochures to possible clients, follow it up with a phone-call and listen to their reactions."