The UK’s Twinjet Aircraft has been awarded a Challenger 604 operating contract by the major UK transport and leisure group, P&O. Twinjet says it was finally selected to operate the Challenger in recognition of the long-standing commercial relationship between the group and Twinjet’s md John Keeble.

Commercial manager Steve Wells told EBAN: “In addition to this, the commercial success of our A319CJ vip operation was obviously a contributing factor.

“After a fairly competitive bidding and tendering process, we’re very pleased to have won the contract and we will be operating the aeroplane for P&O’s own private flying and for Twinjet’s charter services.”

Asked about the potential charter market available to the Luton-based company, Wells said: “We expect the aircraft to be very popular with our charter customers – the Challenger size of aircraft, the range that it has, the size of the cabin, make it a very attractive aircraft to various clients.

“We’ve already had enquiries from those in the entertainment market and people interested in chartering the aircraft for roadshow use.”

The 604 is just over one year old, having operated approximately 200 hours from new. The cabin layout is six single seats with a three-seat sideways facing divan.

Said Wells: “The 604 quite obviously runs head-to-head with aircraft such as the Falcon 2000 and maybe on a slightly smaller scale, the Falcon 50. The cabin on the Challenger has a widebody aircraft feel to it – it’s a more comfortable aircraft, the volume of the cabin is larger than most of the competitors, and pricewise, we think we are actually probably going out at very competitive rates compared with these other aircraft.”

Initial all-inclusive rates for the aircraft will be in the region of £2,900 per hour with £500 per

landing and £450 per night stop. It has 24-hour availability and flies nonstop to New York and also to destinations in the Middle East such as Dubai and Muscat.

The Challenger 604 – registration G-POAJ – has been converted from a private category certificate of airworthiness and added to Twinjet’s AOC for public transport operation. It will be based at London Luton with Twinjet’s A319CJ.

Asked about how the new aircraft will complement Twinjet’s existing managed aircraft, Wells said: “The ACJ is a superb aircraft but obviously has slightly longer legs, a much larger cabin and tends to be used by larger groups.

“Over the last couple of years, we have developed the market for the ACJ and we find that we have clients coming back to us time and again now on that particular aircraft.

“However, it doesn’t always make sense to operate the large aeroplane with a small group of passengers so we see the Challenger as filling this gap in our fleet.”