European Executive, based at Shoreham, UK, has added a fully refurbished Piper Chieftain to its fleet in a bid to expand its charter services.

The aircraft, which has been fitted out in a corporate style with leather seats, will make scheduled business and leisure flights to Guernsey and Jersey, UK, and Le Touquet and Rouen, France.

Managing director David Chowen said: “It’s the only aircraft that has the performance we require with the ability to operate safely out of Shoreham. We felt that it was the quietest and most comfortable aircraft available for the routes we operate.

“We looked at the Islander and Trislander – a lot of companies are operating those types of aircraft but they are fairly noisy and slow. They have a cruise speed of about 120 knots versus the Chieftain’s 170 knots.”

The Chieftain was used as a corporate aircraft before European Executive acquired it and it has a flight time of 2,500 hours. Despite the good condition of the aeroplane, it has had a new interior fitted, a complete bare metal respray and new avionics installed.

“Performance is one of the main things,” said Chowen. “The runway at Shoreham is fairly short but the Chieftain has the ability to get off the shortest runway and climb rapidly up to 10,000 feet to cruise and pick up true air speeds in excess of 170 knots.

“There’s very little out there that has piston operating costs and there’s no start cycle limitation; you can start them as often as you want without wear and tear. Flights to Le Touquet, for example, take only 25 minutes, so it’s very important that we’re not spending too much money on the start cycles.”

Chowen cites low cabin noise, spaciousness and 10 seat capacity as the best attributes of the aircraft and believes it is the best in its class. “There’s very little out there that competes with it. Comparing it to the only other ten-seater variant, the Islander, it’s chalk and cheese really.”

European Executive also operates a Seneca PA34, which is used for light ad hoc charter work and will be used to fill in for the Chieftain when it is in maintenance.

To compete with the major low cost airlines, the company has introduced a ‘realistic’ pricing policy, with flights to Le Touquet from £29 (plus airport charges of £9.99) each way, up to £49 each way plus airport charges to Jersey. As Chowen remarks: “It’s not silly money!”

Although low cost airlines will invariably offer cheaper flights, the company feels that it has the competitive edge thanks to its small size and ability to focus on customer needs.

“The low cost operators are very successful and they have a tremendous amount of seats on offer. What they can’t offer, though, is the efficient boarding of an aircraft because the larger airports they operate out of are totally congested now,” said Chowen.

“There was growing demand from the people that had had enough of the impersonal side of the low cost operations. We aim to give the personal touch – we’re small enough to be able to do that. We also have the advantage of free parking at Shoreham and a 15 minute check in, which obviously Gatwick and Heathrow couldn’t even consider.”

Due to the increasing popularity of its charter services, the company is already considering branching into jet aircraft to expand its capabilities.

“The routes are proving very popular,” said Chowen. “We’re selling a lot of seats at the moment. Our aim is to get a Dornier 228 after route proving with the Chieftain – the goal is to go turbine but one step at a time!”