London businessmen looking to fly long-range to destinations such as the Middle East, the West Indies and Africa need look no further than charter operator, Occitania. The le Bourget-based company opened up a sales office on the outskirts of the UK capital last month and is now looking to tap into the London executive charter scene.

Occitania's London office manager Andrew Lee told EBAN: "Having a presence in the UK is very important for Occitania. If you look at companies like TAG, they've done the same thing recently and Air Entreprise did it a few years ago. London is recognised as a good market and we're very confident of increasing sales here."

Occitania has been in operation for the past three years, and recently opened its own terminal at le Bourget earlier this year. It currently has a fleet comprising two Falcon 900s, two Falcon 50s, one 125, a Falcon 20 retrofit and a Cessna Citation. In addition, through its subsidiary Octavia, the company also operates four Beech 1900s and a Fokker 100.

Lee says that his function at the London office - in addition to a couple of other staff - is mainly to promote Occitania with brokers and one or two direct clients. Although the company won't initially have any aircraft based in London, Lee says that the possibility certainly hasn't been ruled out.

He said: "Because our UK clients will be flying mainly long distances, to the Middle East, West Indies, Africa, the positioning from Paris is immaterial. It only takes 45 minutes. If the journey is going to cost £60,000-80,000, you can more or less absorb it in the costs of the charter itself."With regard to the probable demand in London for Occitania's Falcon fleet, Lee explained: "There's always a demand for long-range aircraft like the Falcon 50 and the Falcon 900 and this is particularly true of the UK because there are only about three 900s available. Most of the time, they're tied up with their owners or with other clients so the availability is always quite poor. We're hoping to cut in on that and take up some of the business that UK operators can't cope with."

"The Falcon is a very versatile aircraft, it's got a good airfield performance, very good range and people like it because of the spacious cabin and the amount of baggage you can take on them. You have to remember also that when we fly to places like the West Indies, where you're crossing lots of water, it's quite nice to have a third engine in the back rather than just two. It give people some peace of mind."

Occitania can be contacted 24-hours a day at its Woking, Surrey office on (44) 01483 714 996.