Belgium’s Abelag Aviation is now offering its first Citation Excel to charter clients. “We also have a Learjet 45 and I think this will appeal to the same customers,” said deputy director Herve Laitat. “It’s ideal for missions around Europe with a more comfortable cabin and has a range of 3,200 km.”

The aircraft is managed for a client, adding to a fleet which is half managed and half owned by Abelag. “The Excel allows us to offer a greater availability to our clients. We operate it for the owner and can then fly a certain number of hours ourselves,” said Laitat. The rest of the fleet includes a Citation 500, two Learjet 35s, a Learjet 45 and a Falcon 2000.

The aircraft is around three years old and was previously operated by Portugal’s Air Luxor. “We didn’t have to change many things within the company with the addition of this new aircraft. We try to arrange the contract with the owner so that our overheads don’t change too much. A marketing plan will be launched for the Excel next week, and over the last month we have definitely felt an increase in demand for such an aircraft. Also heavy aircraft like the Lear 45 and the Falcon 2000 fly quite well compared with the smaller ones,” said Laitat.

Clients are a 50-50 split between domestic and foreign charterers. “Most of the demand for the larger aircraft comes from other brokers and operators in the UK or Germany and France.” He added: “We are currently also brainstorming over the future of our Citation 500 (which we own), and we’ll either replace it or renew the cabin.”