London Biggin Hill’s Interflight recently invited EBAN’s Gary Butcher for a look around its latest addition, a Hawker 125-800. Md Simon Masey said: “I bought the aircraft the day after viewing it. I had always said that if the 800

fell below $4 million then I would buy one, and this was closer to $3.5 million.” This now brings the company’s fleet total to three, alongside its Hawker 700 and Citation II.

The previous owner of the 800 was a private individual who upgraded to a Falcon 2000. The aircraft currently has seven seats, in a club four and three seat divan configuration. “The divan transforms into a bed, which had been used for transatlantic flights. We’re going to replace this with a two-seat club and table arrangement and also add a two-seat divan in a currently unused space to bring the capacity up to eight passengers,” said Masey. Interior re-fitters are already working on the aircraft, which will be ready in around six weeks. “The configurations will then be interchangeable, allowing clients to choose either the bed or the club, which is almost like having two aircraft,” he added.

Although the 800 has only been online for ten days, it’s already made five trips, including a flight over to Valencia. “With its 3,000 nautical mile range, we’re anticipating a number of long-range destinations, including the US, Africa and the Middle East in the future,” said Masey.

This latest addition replaced Interflight’s 125, series 3, which the company owned for nine years. “The 125 was extremely reliable but couldn’t be converted to RVSM and

as a 1969-manufactured aircraft, clients were saying it was becoming

a little too old. The aircraft took around six months to sell, but we were in a position to hold out for a good price. It finally left us in July 2002 for a good home in South Africa (where RVSM isn’t necessary).”

Despite the delay between the delivery of the 800 and the sale of the 125, Masey didn’t make any employees redundant. “Since last summer we’ve been over-crewed on our 700, but it did mean that we already had the crews up and trained when the 800 came onboard. We waited a long time for this Hawker, but I’m an impulse buyer so when the right aircraft came along at the right price, I didn’t hesitate.”

Interflight is now anticipating a move back to Gatwick Airport, where its sister company Interflight Executive has a handling agency.