Eurojet Malta has upgraded from a Learjet 55 to a Learjet 60.

“We chose the Learjet 60 for its proven performance, its reliability, speed, range and its fantastic rate of climb,” said operations director Captain Lino Xuereb. “It also has a very nice standing cabin, with all the amenities readily available.”

The company did consider taking on a Citation III. The Learjet takes a lot of runway for takeoff and landing, according to Xuereb, whereas the Citation III requires less space. “Basically though,” he said, “I think the performance of the Learjet outweighs any other similar mid-sized jet aircraft.

The company has not bought the aircraft, so comparison of price was not an issue, instead it has taken on this model on a five-year dry lease. “It is the right time to buy – we are now in a buyer’s market, but we have found that dry leasing an aircraft puts you in a position to know your losses if something goes

wrong,” said Xuereb.

“All you have to do is make sure that you pay the monthly lease, the crew and the standard maintenance which needs to be done even if you don’t fly.

“It seems that when you’re selling an aircraft, everybody brings the price down for you and you basically end up giving it away for free.

When you’re buying an aircraft it’s the other way round, even if the market is good to buy – everybody pushes the price up,” he said. “So to cut out all the ups and downs – dry leasing an aircraft seems to be the perfect solution.”

The aircraft is already very popular. “In my opinion and according to our customers, we deliver a very good cabin service. From what I hear when we travel with different clients, the service in our cabin is very good compared to other operators. It would seem that some catering is not as good value for money,” he explained. “Our company feels that the catering is the least expensive part out of the whole charter price.

“So we pamper the clients with the best catering onboard. We always have a hostess onboard. And it is standard for all hostesses to be trained to the highest standard every six months, along with the

rest of the crew. The speed of the aircraft is right and the cabin is very comfortable.”

The company has been entrusted to fly the government of Malta and with Malta now joining the EU, Xuereb feels that there will be an increase in demand for the government to use the aircraft. The Lear 60 was chosen specifically for its suitability to this mission.

“We have other clients out of Malta, like hoteliers, but we do also work with brokers in England and brokers nearby in places like Greece and sometimes Italy. Very rarely requests come in from the United States or Canada,” he said.

“To get business out of the island is not the ideal business plan. We are the only jet to operate out of Malta and it is a very costly exercise – there is no question,” he said. “To maintain the JAR OPS requirements is even more costly. First of all because it’s a one-off aircraft and secondly, every time we put an aircraft on the register, we are the first ones, we are the only ones – I’m always the guinea pig for Malta Civil Aviation.

“I started jet flying in 1980 and I have about six aircraft behind me and every time I put an aircraft on registration, like this one, they give me a really hard time to certify and register the aircraft. At the end of

the day though, the job is done and now we are looking forward to a good five years flying.”

Eurojet Malta has been flying the Prime Minister and President of Malta since 1996. “The flights are increasing in frequency and in May 2004, Malta will become a full member of the European Union,” he said. “There will definitely be more demand by the Malta government senior officials to fly round Europe for summits, for urgent meetings in Brussels and so forth.

“We already have flights booked by the Maltese government before the end of this year. One of them

is to Nigeria, so as you can see, the flights are getting longer and it’s picking up slowly, but surely,”

he explained.

“Every time the aircraft is flown for the Prime Minister or the President, we put the Republic of Malta logo on the aircraft. After the flight, the aircraft is then converted back to a normal ad hoc taxi, so we remove the logo,” Xuereb said. “We do not put the Maltese logo on our aircraft for Eurojet, but we do offer to put

the customer logo by the door so it looks like this is the customer’s own aircraft.”

On its books the company currently has a Lear 55, a Lear 60, a Challenger 604 and a Boeing 727-200 series with a hush-kit. These aircraft are available for Eurojet Malta if it needs to use them.

“At the moment, the charter market in this part of the world is slightly in a dip,” he said. “I do not foresee that it will stay this way for long, as we are expecting that it should start going back to normal again by January. Since Eurojet started in 1994, every year there is always one and a half months that are bad and there is a real dip.”

The competition may have the edge on price, but Xuereb insists that safety training is paramount to

the company and that this is the area where it surpasses its competitors. “Maybe we are slightly more expensive than other companies, but we do safety training on a regular basis.”

He concluded: “My boss is adamant that we must attend these sessions and believes that flight safety is of utmost importance.”