Aircharter Flugservice expects to have the first Mustang registered in Germany. “We made an order for the aircraft (serial number 30) about three weeks ago. The delivery date is between the middle and the end

of 2006,” confirmed md Detlef Keinath. The company is hoping to embark on its first fractional ownership programme with the aircraft, offering shares to three or four of its current customers.

Keinath originally approached Cessna direct over a purchase, but was told that the earliest delivery date would be 2008/9. “We felt that serial number 211 would arrive too late for us, but Cessna put us in touch with Michael Laux of Atlas Air Service. Michael had ordered five Mustangs for Germany and so we bought an option from him for a much earlier serial number,” said Keinath.

The company currently operates a Beech King Air 90 (for a large German company) and a CJ1 (for a wealthy Stuttgart-based businessman). “The Mustang appealed to us because at $2,240,000 it’s nearly half the price of a CJ1. Normally we have just one or two passengers flying for an average of one and a half hours, so this aircraft will be a lot more economical for them to charter,” he said.

One of Mustang’s closest competitors is considered to be the Eclipse, so we asked Keinath why he decided upon the Mustang. “It’s not so easy to find maintenance facilities for the Eclipse, whereas the Mustang is basically a modified CJ1 which we have lots of experience with. Also Eclipse appears to have run into a few technical problems with some of the first 200 produced, whereas Cessna are a lot more experienced in bringing a new aircraft into production.

“As an operator we need our fleet to be in use every day, and if an Eclipse had to keep going into maintenance then it would be a major problem. Also our pilots have experience with the CJ1, and I think the Mustang is almost the same to handle,” he explained.

Keinath first heard of the Mustang at Jet Aviation through a Cessna representative. He said: “I was shown a picture of the Mustang and I thought immediately that it was perfect for the charter market. It’s very cheap and has four club seats, which is easily enough for us.

“We would like to start a fractional ownership programme with the air-craft, which would be a first for us. We have around thirty regular customers, of which four or five fly between 80 and 100 hours a year, making them perfect for the programme.”

This is the first time the company has made a direct option with Cessna and would already like to start marketing the fractional proposition next year. “Cessna have told us that deliveries may even start in 2005, so a two or three year wait is fine for us. It would work out well because the leasing contract on the CJ1 finishes in 2006, although we have an option to buy it at the end of this time which we would like to take up.

“Ideally we’ll be able to operate all three aircraft at the same time, especially if the market has picked up by 2006,” added Keinath.