Swiss company Dasnair has recently taken on a new Falcon 50, which it will manage on behalf of its client. Roger Heiniger told EBAN: “We already had a Falcon 50 and a Falcon 900, so basically we wanted to stay with the same type of aircraft. It makes it easier for the training and recurrency training for the pilots,” he said, “it’s the same type rating and it makes much more sense overall.”

With two Falcon aircraft already in operation, why was another Falcon 50 so appealing? “People like the bigger size cabin of the 900, but the 50 is very popular as well,” explained Heiniger. “It performs better on short runways and taking off is made far easier.”

The aircraft has not been with the company for very long, but it is already clocking up the miles. “We have flown throughout Europe and we have recently flown a mission to Dubai and Pakistan,” he said. “We have really only just started with it and that has been our longest journey so far.”

Even though the new aircraft has not officially entered charter service yet, Heiniger is looking forward to the day when Dasnair will be given the go-ahead to start these operations. “At the moment the owner is flying the aircraft a lot, but it’s going to be under a commercial operation here very soon.

“We have to wait until the authorities in Switzerland give their approval,” he said. “When the time comes, we will aim it at vip and business charter customers.

“We expect to fly about 450 hours a year,” Heiniger confirmed. “It will probably work out that about half of those hours will be with the owner. He is currently using it for business and for some leisurely excursions.”

Heiniger says that the company expects the jet to be popular with customers travelling throughout Europe, parts of the Middle East and Africa. “Its range with a high-speed cruise is 2,500 nautical miles, with a long-range cruise of 3,000 nautical miles,” he said, “so it would be perfect for flights to those sorts of places.”

Expansion is on the cards, but probably with the addition of another model of the same type. Heiniger told us: “We may take on and manage another aircraft in the next 12 months. We are interested in the Falcon 2000, but it makes much more sense for us to keep the same kind of aircraft.”

The charter market in Switzerland has faced its troubles lately, but Heiniger reported that things are now improving. “The Swiss charter market has been quite slow lately, but it’s picking up again,” he said. “It has certainly and quite evidently been picking up in the last month or so.

“Right now we have a lot of requests and we’ve given a lot of quotations out to potential customers. The future looks much brighter,” said Heiniger.

“The aviation markets around the world all seem to have been suffering recently,” he said finally. “This may be due to the international situation with security, terrorism, the war in Iraq, or the problems in

Asia with SARS,” he noted. “Still, hopefully from now on, things will continue to improve.”