K5-Aviation of Germany received ETOPS 120 approval for its Airbus ACJ319 in March, only nine months after obtaining its commercial operating licence with ETOPS 90.

In recent months K5 has been certified for all weather operations including Cat IIIb approaches without decision height and RNAV approaches.

According to accountable manager Dr Ineke Goertz this rapid development has only been possible due to the experience of the K5 team in operating Airbus aircraft. "The ACJ319 presently operated under our AOC has been taken care of by the same people since it was delivered from Airbus in 2007," explains Dr Goertz.

K5 is based near Munich and is actively looking for more ACJs to be operated under a European AOC. "We offer aircraft management including CAMO services and crewing as well as operating aircraft for charter," says flight operations manager Erik Scheidt.

The next target will be ETOPS 180 approval, for which the company needs to prove its reliability and performance for a further six months. Manuals and procedures are already approved. "We can now operate more direct, such as crossing the North Atlantic flying to Florida as we can fly further south. ETOPS 180 will allow us to operate to Hawaii, for example."

The first service was flown from Europe to Florida non-stop in 11 hours. Readers may have had the opportunity to see K5's A319CJ when it was exhibited by Airbus at the EBACE show in Geneva in May 2011.