Toscana Jet, an Italian vip operator

based in Florence, has just received a

brand new King Air B200 which will

operate from Florence and Borro

airfield in Tuscany. Corporate

Aircraft, the Raytheon Aircraft dealer

for Italy, France and Switzerland,

managed the sale.

Toscana Jet will be operating the

aircraft in partnership with Aeromed

Service Italia for EMS operations

in Italy, and the companies are

already thinking about adding

further Raytheon aircraft to the fleet

in the future.

“This is the first B200 sold in

Italy since the 90s. However, several

King Air 350 aircraft have been

delivered here in the last few

years,” said Alexandre le Tourneur

d’Ison, marketing manager of

Corporate Aircraft.

“In the rest of Europe there

are plenty of B200s. In England

and in France there are lots, but

many of them are older aircraft,”

he continued.

“They have been sold in Germany

recently I believe, but not by us. We

are the dealers for Italy, Switzerland

and France only.”

Le Tourneur described the selling

points of the aircraft, which

persuaded Toscana Jet to purchase

one. “It can operate on very short

runways, it has good takeoff

performance, it lands well, and has

high load capacity,” he said. “You can

go with full passengers and fuel

supplies and the aircraft still does the

full range, something which other

aircraft are not able to do. It’s also

known for its versatility.

“Toscana Jet have put a stretcher

inside for medevac work and it

can be removed again to provide for

a vip interior configuration.”

He believes that it works best

in France and Germany because

of the number of airports with

short runways.

“But in Italy, it’s more difficult,” he

explained, “because there are less

suitable airfields. People tend to go

to the larger airports here.

“Raytheon aircraft in general

are selling very well here at the

moment. We are now introducing

the Premier 1 in Milano.

“There are ten now in Europe and

more to come and it will be a great

success,” he enthused. “Also, the

Hawker 800XP is doing very well – we

have five in Italy.

“The Beechjets are seeing

continued prosperity and also,

turboprops are experiencing the

same rise as the industry recovers.

“I think that in two or three years’

time, aircraft sales in Europe will

have increased.

“With exchange rates, with the

dollar and the euro, it’s covenient

to buy an aircraft in today’s

market,” he said.