Under new ownership, Ljubljana-based GIO Aviation is considering further fleet expansion, as its push for business into international markets gathers pace.

The company reports that it has been through many changes during the past year. The most important of these was the change of ownership, when heavy machinery manufacturer Litostroj Group took over. "To connect better with our new owner company we refreshed our corporate identity and brought in the colour orange," says sales and marketing manager Ines Ogorevc.

"The symbolic meaning of orange is power and we believe the GIO team has the power to offer the best possible service to its clients."

GIO has also moved its head office staff to work alongside the operations department at Ljubljana Brnik airport, and at the same time five new employees joined the team: Ines Ogorevc and Sabina Muharemovi? in sales, Jure Mernik and Ziga Bernot in operations and Franc Buhvald in maintenance.

"So 15 motivated people are now trying their best to offer highly responsive and personalised service to the client," says Ogorevc. GIO has four business jets in its fleet, two Citation Excels, one Bravo and one Citation II, which can be modified in to medical configuration.

By the end of 2011 the company had begun to look for opportunities beyond Slovenia and had relocated one of its Excels to serve the Russian region, based in Kiev, Ukraine.

"Every beginning is hard, but we believe we are doing very well and we have high expectations for our future business there," says Ogorevc.

"All these changes were directed towards offering a high standard of service to our clients and we will continue our development in this direction."

Slovenia's central location bordering Italy, Austria and Hungary means that there are openings to investigate on all sides: "We expect a lot from the coming year. One of our projects involves medical flights in collaboration with an Italian partner," says Ogorevc.

Owner Litostroj Group regularly uses GIO's service for its own business travel requirements, and is now investigating further aircraft additions.