The Berlin-based aviation division of Sony Europe has recently replaced its Falcon 2000 with a Falcon

2000EX, following a decision by senior staff in Japan.

Sony Worldwide only has Falcons and has owned every model including the 20, 50, 200, 900 and 900EX.

“We sold our old Falcon 2000 and replaced it with the new Falcon 2000EX. We have had the 2000EX for just over a month, so we don’t have a mission profile for it yet,” said a company source. “With the old aircraft, we did mainly intra-European flights, with very few international flights. However the new aircraft is especially good at long-range missions, so there is a lot of potential.”

The aircraft is solely for use by the company and will not be doing any charter operations at all. “It is there to serve Sony in any way necessary,” the spokesperson said. “We fly people to business meetings in the broadest way you can think of, because Sony Music and Sony Pictures is also a part of our company. We also help with promotional tours. Overall, we have four aviation divisions worldwide.

“If we work with this new model, like we did with the old one, then we are probably looking at flying 250-400 hours per year throughout Europe. If we do carry out long-range missions, it will be considerably more than that.

“Since they have stopped flying with Concorde to the United States, we may well have to carry out these longer flights ourselves. We couldn’t fight against Concorde because of its speed, but now this is no longer an option, our flight hours could increase dramatically.

“I think that we have between seven and nine aircraft operational within our current fleet, but this depends on whether we’re in the process of selling one or getting a new one. We also have a few helicopters.

“We have our own base of customers directly through Sony, so we don’t have to compete for work,” he continued. “If our customers want to fly, then we fly them. If they have weeks when they’re on holiday, then we’re on holiday too. It’s not too bad actually!”