Saab Aircraft Leasing (SAL) has announced its entry into the executive air transport market with the delivery of several corporately-configured Saab 340As. There are currently four of these aircraft in operation, three in the US and one in South Africa.

SAL president Michael Magnusson told EBAN: “Our partner in this project is Piedmont Hawthorne and although we envisage our market will be primarily in the States, we believe there’ll be a few opportunities in Europe.

“In Europe, most people want to contract someone to provide a service for them. In this case, we would team up with an operator to fly the aircraft.”

In America, on of the customers is Texan company Meregrass, which uses the aircraft as a

company shuttle. Another is the University of Indiana.

Magnusson added: “In America, the reasons we already have customers for this aircraft are because of security, speed and privacy. You know everyone on the flight, you avoid the type of delays associated with the main airports and there’s no danger of people overhearing your business conversations.”

SAL says it will wait to see how the market responds to this product before deciding on future corporate aircraft offerings.