Monaco’s Boutsen Aviation, chiefly known for its participation in the European broker market, has taken on the management of a second aircraft – an Astra 1125SP. The company made its first steps into this line of business last year, with the addition of a CitationJet, and is now interested in expanding its fleet slowly in the future.

Thierry Boutsen told EBAN: “Management of aircraft is something that I have done for myself since 1986 as an owner-pilot. I was racing in Formula 1 and managing my own aircraft operations. I’ve been doing this for 18 years now.”

Boutsen says the experience he gained from managing his own aircraft has made it much easier for him to introduce a management department at his company. Apart from his own input, he also has one person directly responsible for the management of both aircraft and another person is also likely to come onboard in the future.

The company which owns Boutsen’s managed CitationJet, also owns the Astra. It has offices all over the world and mainly uses the smaller jet for travel in central Europe. The Astra is reserved primarily for the company’s management personnel.

Said Boutsen: “The reason this company chose the Astra is because it wanted an aircraft that was not too big, that would be able to fly 2,800nm nonstop and that was not too expensive to purchase.

“It’s a good compromise because it’s the only medium-sized jet

which is able to fly that far,” he

said. “The next aircraft we would

have considered would have

been a Challenger or a Falcon 50, but I recommended the Astra because they need to stay in the medium-sized jet category.”

Boutsen says there are a lot of advantages, financial and otherwise, for an owner having his aircraft managed by a company such as his.

“Due to our experience,” he concluded, “we can schedule an inspect when it’s needed and not unnecessarily. We negotiate most of the maintenance contracts for the customer and we have commercial agreements with companies in Europe, enabling us to strike up some really good deals.”