Piaggio has taken another five orders for its P180 Avanti, the first of which will be delivered later this year. Prime Aviation has made one firm order and taken four options from UK and Ireland distributor Sloane Aviation. Sales director, Adrian Munday, said: “The aircraft will be ex-factory in late August/early September. It will then go to a contractor for interior and exterior finishing and realistically it will be finished by November.”

This will be the second P180 flying in the UK, the first was sold factory direct and operates privately out of Fairoaks, Surrey. These next five aircraft will be used solely for private business use for Prime Aviation, the aviation subsidiary of a corporation. “We have a lot of customer interest from corporations and operators who are looking at buying an aircraft to operate for vip and air ambulance services.

“There are also corporations wanting to lease back their aircraft to underwrite some of the associated operating costs by having the aircraft chartered. But you can not do that until you have UK certification,” said Munday. The options for the four remaining aircraft are based on refundable deposits, which puts the onus on Piaggio to certify the aircraft for UK private and public transport operations.

“Piaggio will have a preliminary meeting hopefully in July with the CAA to give a technical overview

of the P180. This will be the first time the Avanti has been presented for UK certification to the CAA,

which is relaxing regulations as we come into line with the rest Europe,” he added.

Piaggio is now carrying out feasibility studies on improving the current P180, which will include avionics upgrades, increasing the entrance door size and mechanism, along with interior upgrades. This coincides with a push towards the fractional market: “There is a lot of opportunity for fractional ownership schemes, as this is an ideal European travel solution. The P180 offers low operational costs, because it’s a turboprop with the speed of a jet,” said Munday.

Sloane’s agreement with Piaggio started last June, after the relaunch of the P180. “Attitudes have

changed towards the aircraft since its relaunch.

“I think basically it was ten years ahead of its time. It was also tarnished with the same brush as the failing Beech Starship, and industry and customers (in their conservative view) were just not able to accept an aircraft of such radical design,” claimed Munday.