Bookajet has had a busy few months. At the end of 2003, it added a Hawker 800B to its fleet on lease. This is the fifth aircraft to be added by the company in the two years since it began operating.

In November, the company partnered with Europe’s members-only airline Club Airways of Switzerland, dedicating two Hawker 125 business jets to its newly launched routes from Geneva to Milan; Milan

to Paris Le Bourget and Geneva-

Paris. Then, between Christmas and New Year, the company who were based at Farnborough – moved to Southampton Airport.

“We needed to expand and we were growing quite quickly and so we came down to Southampton to do exactly that, we’ve got a little bit more room and it suits what our intentions are over the next few years,” said executive director for marketing and sales, Christian Rooney. “The new facility is excellent.”

He continued: “At Farnborough we were in one of the older hangars. Ultimately, Farnborough is being upgraded. But we just didn’t have

the facilities that we needed. It made sense for us to look for a new home. We’ve come to Southampton and taken over what was the old Signature maintenance hangar,” he said. “It’s purely a base for us, our aircraft operate out of all the airports in the UK or Europe. It’s primarily a base for our staff.”

30 Bookajet staff have relocated to Southampton and the company is now seeking to recruit an additional 40 employees in support of its plans to establish an aircraft maintenance organisation and charter division at the central southern UK airport.

Rooney reports that the new location was chosen for a multitude of reasons. Being in the south-east was advantageous, as a large amount of its clients are based in the south-east and the airport is still within easy access of London and the west country.

“It’s very early days, but there are new customers coming in all the

time and being taken on, that’s why we’re growing quite quickly,” he explained. “Our client base is very diverse, from the big corporate organisations to celebrities.

We look after David Beckham and his wife Victoria,” he said. “We’ve been doing a lot of work for them since David’s move to Spain – we fly for them regularly. They use a Hawker 125-800 aircraft.”

The company chose the Hawker 800B, because its fleet is predominantly made up of Hawkers already. It has four Hawkers now and one Citation V. Rooney told us that it made sense for the company to take on the same type of aircraft. He also claimed that the customers like that it is a mid-sized jet with a reasonably roomy interior. “It is perfect for European flights, because it has good levels of comfort,” he said.

“We would like to see the fleet up to about nine aircraft over the next 18 months. We’re looking at lots of different types of aircraft at the moment,” he added.

“We want to look at the possibilities of really developing the operation, not just within the UK, but in Europe as well. I think it’s really a case of seeing how the next six months pan out for us, because we’re seeing a great deal of activity.”