Porsche Holding, the aviation department of the well known car manufacturer, has replaced its Citation Bravo with a Citation Encore. “The Bravo was a little too small for us, because sometimes we fly with eight passengers and there’s not enough space in the cabin.

The Encore is 60 centimetres longer than the Bravo and the leg space is a lot better.

“The Bravo is a good aircraft for six passengers, but not for eight,” said chief pilot Peter Schlotterer, explaining the reasoning behind the decision.

The company employs three pilots but does not offer its aircraft for charter, only Porsche employees benefit from the service. “The passengers really like it because it’s very quiet in the cabin and very comfortable. The Encore also has a range of 1,800 nautical miles (with full tanks) carrying four to five passengers,” he added. Upon purchase, Porsche Holding made certain adjustments to the aircraft in order to meet Austrian certification requirements.

Schlotterer said: “As a pilot it’s very, very nice to fly. It’s one of the best aircraft I’ve ever flown.

It’s very powerful and the climb rate is excellent. It will be flying all over Europe from our base in Salzburg, which is basically in the middle of Europe.

“So we can reach anywhere from North Africa to Southern Spain, Finland or Norway all non-stop.”

Prior to the Bravo the company owned a Citation V and had planned to replace it with an Ultra: “When we bought the Bravo, we knew that a new aircraft was coming out, but it wasn’t official. The Ultra was the aircraft we should have bought, but we decided against it, because it’s an old aircraft,” said Schlotterer.\r

Porsche displayed its canny nose for business, reaping a good return even in a depressed market: “For

us, this was a good time to buy, because we sold our old aircraft at a very good price (back in November). This isn’t normal in the current market where prices are very low for used aircraft, but we had a lot of luck. Another Austrian operator bought it and wanted to fly commercially. Fortunately our aircraft was equipped for JAA requirements.

“It’s a problem to buy a US aircraft and register it commercially for Europe, it can be very expensive. And ours was the only one available in Europe at that time to meet their specifications.”