Canadian seafood company, Clearwater Fine Foods, is planning lots of European travel with its new Challenger 604.

Aviation manager Gary Hamblen told EBAN: “We expect to fly to London, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Iceland,” he said, “pretty much all over western Europe.

“It has a 4,000nm range. It will be able to come and go from Halifax to western Europe non-stop,” he said. “Another big factor, especially for my boss, is that there is lots of room to work in the cabin.

“The couch that’s in the aircraft can be very easily made into a bed. Normally when we come overseas we travel at night, so we leave here in the evening and arrive in London at around 6am,” he continued. “There is also a lot of room for baggage on this aircraft.

The previous aircraft Clearwater used was a Hawker 800XP. This was deployed on long-range missions but as Hamblen explained, nine times out of 10 times they could fly from Halifax to London non-stop but on the way home, always had to stop.

“For us it’s a big leap going from a mid-sized aircraft to a larger aircraft,” said Hamblen. “It’s the first time we’ve ever done this, but my boss said, just the other day, that he loves the aircraft, he finds it very quiet and he likes the galley.

“We can carry some food now and also various supplies. We will be serving the company’s seafood onboard.”

Clearwater works with a company called Chefs by Design, which takes care of its catering demands on a worldwide level. “They have contacts throughout the world, so wherever we are, something can be sorted out and be delivered to the aircraft,” he said.

“Chefs by Design are under contract to Clearwater to do other jobs as well. If our company wanted to promote a new type of seafood to a new customer, this guy will travel with our people to the customer and he will cook the food and demonstrate the seafood to this person.

“We expect to fly 500 hours in the aircraft per year. It will be used mostly by the chairman of the board, Mr John Risley, for business trips,” he added.

Hamblen explained what his job entails: “I run the complete flight department with the two aircraft and everyone in the flight department comes through me and I then report back to Mr Risley,” he said.

“We have an internal company website, where we have a schedule, so if someone wants a flight

they can arrange it through that system. The aircraft will be used by many different departments of Clearwater,” Hamblen continued.

“For example, when we go to London, we always put the word out that somebody is flying there and we have so many seats free. Many times we’ve transported different departments at the same time.”