Spain’s Executive Airlines has taken on a Beechjet 400A under its first management contract. The company, which was set up in 2000, already owns a Falcon 900EX and a Citation Bravo. Operations co-ordinator Frank Gonzalez told us: “We think this will complement our fleet. The speed of the aircraft in particular is a great advantage. \r

“It’s ideal for flying around central Europe to places such as Luxembourg and Germany and comfortably carries seven passengers.” \r

The 400A is based in Pamplona, while the rest of the fleet operates out of Barcelona.\r

Management appears to be the way forward for the growing company: “We’re hoping to manage more aircraft in the near future and for the moment this will take priority over buying more aircraft ourselves. After approaching the company which owns this Beechjet, they quickly understood what a great opportunity it was to have a company take care of everything,” said Gonzalez. \r

Executive Airlines will offer the Beechjet on its AOC, as well as providing maintenance, operations and crew.\r

“The aircraft has been flying with us for around two months and although business has been a little slow recently, we hope in the coming weeks it will see a lot more action. The clients who have used it have been very happy,” he added.\r

Setting up a new charter company in Spain hasn’t been easy according to Gonzalez: “It was a bit of nightmare to start with, we had great difficulty in obtaining the relevant licences and certifications. But once these were in place we were able to get going quickly and buy the 900EX and Bravo.” Last year the EX had a 90 per cent occupancy rate on operational days. Destinations included the US, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Russia, China, Libya and Saudi Arabia.\r

“The market here is very competitive, especially with the more established companies. In the future we hope there will be more co-operation between us and Gestair, for example,” he said.