At the beginning of February, Goldeck-Flug added another Citation Ultra to its fleet. EBAN spoke to quality manager and technical pilot, Friedrich Pontasch to find out more about the latest acquisition.

“We have a Citation V and a Citation Ultra and both planes are very popular amongst our customers,” he said. “We had a growing demand for this type of medium-range aircraft and this was the reason that we decided to purchase an additional one.

“The new aircraft is equipped with a refreshment centre, a lavatory and like our other Citations, the Citation Ultra has very good short-field

and takeoff performance,” Pontasch continued. “Another advantage is the large luggage compartment, which the customers are very happy about!”

There is a growing market, according to Pontasch, especially in eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavian countries. He believes that business will definitely increase with the 10 new countries becoming part of the EU.

“There is also a growing demand in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the reason for this is that they are joining the EU next year and Croatia will follow in two years. Economically, there has also been substantial growth there,” he said. “There is a strong need, because there are no business aviation operators at the moment

in those countries.”

Pontasch is sure that operators will appear on the scene soon in those particular locations, but for now, people have to look elsewhere. Slovenia is very close to Austria and Austria-based Goldeck-Flug is approximately 30km from the Slovenian border.

This means that the company has a flight time to Slovenia of about 10 minutes, making it easier for it to compete with a lot of carriers who would have to make flights from much further afield.

“We get our customers by word of mouth,” he explained. “If a customer is very pleased with the service we have provided, then they naturally tell their friends, colleagues or business associates – who may choose to use our company for their own needs.

“Having a fleet of Citations is really very beneficial to us, it makes them easier to operate, with crew being interchangeable and also, maintenance is easier,” he continued.

“We are very happy working with Cessna aircraft and we do all of our maintenance with Jet Aviation in Germany and they do a good job. They look after our Citation aircraft and also, our Hawker,” he said. “When we change parts, one goes for maintenance and the other comes back from maintenance – it’s very good to work with Jet Aviation.”

The aircraft entered into operation in mid-February and the first flight it did was to Accra in Ghana, Africa.

“We wouldn’t usually use the aircraft for such long journeys,” he insisted, “but our Hawker was in

for maintenance at the time. Usually the Citations would only do

flights within Europe.

“Our customers are very happy about us having a larger fleet of Citations, because it makes it easier for us to interchange the aircraft – they have the same interior and exterior paint-work. The availability of the aircraft is much higher now.”

As mentioned in its last interview with EBAN, Goldeck-Flug signed up to Avinode’s web service in 2003. For the time being, it reports that there have not been as many flights generated from the site as hoped, but it is increasing slightly with time.