A CitationJet returned for charter duties at Oxaero recently, after a brief and unsuccessful fractional ownership foray. G-OHAT arrived at Oxford after being bought by one of Oxaero’s established aircraft owners, and will be used solely for charter.

Oxaero’s charter sales manager Richard Birch said: “The aircraft was actually owned by Airshare, a

start-up fractional owner operation. It was put on Oxaero’s AOC to generate some revenue while Airshare became established and found its fractional owners, then when it got going it left Oxaero's operation and was solely operated by Airshare, around June 2000.

“Unfortunately, the fractional ownership programme didn't profit for Airshare's investors and so the company was wound up. The aircraft came up for sale so we decided it would be worth having as it had been a very popular charter aircraft in the short time it was with us.”

The entry level business jet had just come out of the Cessna paint shop down at Bournemouth, Birch reports, and the crew were en route to Norwich to do some training, when they got a call that a donor heart had become available in Ireland. “It was a rush job that had to be done that night,” said Birch, “so we simply diverted it straight from here to Londonderry to pick up the heart from the donor and flew it down to London.”

Was the operation a success, EBAN asked? “That I don’t know, we never get to hear.”

This kind of mission is not a common one for Oxaero. The charterer’s other aircraft, the Citation Ultra, is too expensive for that role, said Birch; transplant flights tend to go on King Airs. However, it was the second organ flight the company had been consulted on that day.

“It was originally going to be a liver that we picked up,” he said, “which we quoted for but didn’t get, that mission went on a King Air. The liver went to Birmingham, and then we got a call to take the heart to Heathrow. Pricing for the CJ is quite close to the King Air, the entry level business jet is a similar proposition to the longer runs for the turboprop. The CJ is a bit quicker, especially over long distances – but over short runs it is only marginally quicker.”

Apart from the occasional heart, Oxaero’s Cessnas carry ceos, vips and rock stars. “The CJ and the Ultra tend to be used for European hops; anything further than Spain is refuelling territory. We seem to have lot of inquiries for the UK recently, although it is on a run to Switzerland as we speak, and our AOC covers Europe and Africa. Two to three people going on a two and a half hour run is ideal.

“We are looking forward to the arrival of the Citation Excel with its stand up cabin, currently set for 2002. This will see Oxaero encroaching on the medium sized bizjet sector,” Birch added.