Denmark’s Dantax A/S has bought itself a Citation 650, which sister company North Flying will operate

on its behalf. The aircraft arrived at the company’s hq in Aalborg at the end of June and as EBAN goes to press, is on the verge of starting operations after an RVSM visit to Marshalls in Cambridge.

North Flying’s sales and ops manager Jef Sorensen told us: “We got the aircraft at a good price but that was partly because it was missing some equipment. We’ve spent the past three months equipping it with avionics upgrades and giving the interior a facelift and schedule maintenance phase 5.

“Marshalls are just finishing the RVSM work today but the rest of the work we’ve done ourselves at our JAR 145 approved maintenance facility.”

North Flying says the choice of Citation 650 was made a lot easier by the fact that some of its pilots

and technicians already had experience on the aircraft. Said Sorensen: “These days, it’s not easy starting from scratch with a new type of aircraft – it’s a lot easier if you have spare parts, medical equipment and pilots with previous experience of that type. So it was always going to be easier with a Citation compared to a Hawker for example. Also it’s got a good range, very nice cabin with possible stewardess service and when it’s low on load it has good shortfield performance.”

North Flying’s 650 is certified for eight passengers in vip configuration and with five passengers and full tanks, will have a range capability of 1,850nm. It will mainly be deployed on executive flights, but will also have medevac capability.

Said Sorensen: “We have all the equipment for medical flights but I imagine this will only account for 15 per cent of its work.”

In medevac configuration, North Flying plans to use the 650 just for dual stretcher flights as other aircraft in its fleet, like the Learjet 35, are able to carry out the single stretcher work a lot more cheaply.

As regards competition for the 650, Sorensen says there are several companies in Denmark and Norway operating Citation IIIs and Excels. He said: “It’s hard starting up with a new type of aircraft, especially if you only have one of them, so we’re pricing the aircraft very competitively.

“On average, depending on distance-based pricing, it will cost around 3,000 euros per flight hour.” North Flying has 16 aircraft in total.