JetClub’s Farnborough location has added a Challenger to its charter fleet, which also includes a Cannes-based Excel. Commercial manager Keith Woolley said: “The aircraft is being operated on a management contract for a client who made the recent purchase. We’ve now got two Challengers in the fleet (the other based in Zurich) and the synergies mean we can offer assistance to other Challenger owners.”

The aircraft can carry up to nine passengers and according to Woolley, the company expects a great deal of demand for it: “Much of the custom will come from the UK itself and with two Challengers in Europe now, we’ll hopefully always be able to offer one. Although we’re based at Farnborough, we fly from anywhere in the UK and destinations are typically the warmer countries (places like the Med, Nice, Malaga, Palma and Rome). The new aircraft will mainly be catering for private trips over to mainland Europe, although there will also be a number of business trips.”

JetClub has bases in both Spain and Switzerland, as well as Farnborough. “I would say that the market has remained fairly buoyant in the UK in comparison to the rest of Europe. It has suffered from the lack of Americans coming over, but that seems to be shifting now and there are a number of new enquiries coming from the US. I think world politics and the economy have probably both contributed equally to the overall fall in business.

“Since the economy has remained rather static, I’ve also seen more private individuals rather than corporates flying, because they’re using their own money,” said Woolley.

Up until last year JetClub had a GIV based at Farnborough, from which the Challenger has now effectively taken over. “We don’t have any other aircraft at Farnborough at the moment, since the GIV changed over to a Bermuda registration. In the interim, before the Challenger arrived, we brought over either the GIV or GV based in Zurich. Invariably most charter requests are not aircraft-type specific, they’re mission specific.

Therefore the Challenger has basically picked up the business which the GIV would have previously covered,” he said.

JetClub is hoping to add to its Farnborough-based fleet in the near future. “The Challenger has fitted well into our fleet and we feel we’re good at catering for long-range charter customers. We’re happy to take on any jet though, from the Bravo upwards,” added Woolley.