Belgium’s Sky Service has recently added two Beech King Air 200s to its fleet, with a third soon on its way. The company, which merged with fellow Belgian charterer Abelag Aviation a few years ago, is also expecting delivery of a second Dauphin AS365.

The companies combined have an extensive fleet, including two E110 Bandeirantes, a Learjet 45, a Citation I, II and EC120 among others. Sky Service’s David Dekyver told EBAN: “The Beech 200 is an easy aircraft to broker for charter at the moment. It’s relatively cheap and it’s fast. With the Dauphin we will do some private charters and a few medical flights.”

The 200 marks an attempt for the companies to move into the fractional ownership market in Belgium. Said Dekyver: “At the moment there are only two other companies involved in the market. We are moving into this because we feel that fractional ownership is the future for the business aviation market. Later, we may also include a Citation II in it, which would be bought in (although these are early days yet).”

The repainted Beech 200s will hold between seven and eight people for Sky Service’s predominantly Belgian and French client base. “The 200 has a flight time of around three hours and so far we’ve been to Guernsey, Gothenburg, Berlin and Frankfurt,” said Dekyver.

Currently Sky Service’s business is mainly ad hoc charters and cargo flights. “The Beech 200s will be mainly used for passenger flights, but also medical flights and small cargo flights. Unfortunately though, the cargo business is very calm at the moment,” added Dekyver.

He explained that in general the market was slow at the moment, and this expansion occurred now because the aircraft had already been bought prior to September. “Since their arrival the market has been very calm, so we have had to promote the 200s a little on the charter market. This is a knock-on from September and the general economy (especially for the cargo business), but we aren’t too nervous because we do feel the market will pick up. It’s happening already.”