German operator Taunus Air has added a Learjet 55 to its fleet in order to corner the increasing market for larger business jets in Russia.

The company bought the aircraft last October but only began operating it recently as it underwent six months of avionics updates and a full refurbishment.

Ground operations manager Gunter Krahe told EBAN: “It’s been refurbished from tip to toe. As the exterior was quite close to our corporate identity paint work, we just had to refresh the paint work in some places.

“We had the interior refurbished with tasteful leather and woodwork and installed an in-flight entertainment featuring DVD-cinema on two monitors, individual headphones, JetMap flight information system, and audio CD.

The aircraft has also been configured for air ambulance missions and features a brand-new Spectrum double stretcher with the ability to carry an intensive care patient and a stable passenger simultaneously.

Taunus currently operates two Learjet 35s but noticed demand for larger aircraft and saw the Lear 55 as an ideal step up.

“For a privately-owned company it’s the only logical solution to take a Lear 55 if you want to improve a fleet of Lear 35s,” said Krahe, “and the market price is okay.

“It more or less has the same range and flight times as the Lear 35, so we don’t need to recalculate anything, which, in a small company, would take time.”

Since it began operating, the aircraft has flown about 100 hours, which Taunus aims to increase to 400 hours by the end of this year and between 600 to 800 hours in following years. The company anticipates that the majority of its flights will be outside its native Germany, with a particularly high level of business coming from Russia.

“Most of our business is happening outside of Germany,” said Krahe, “and most of the enquiries are from Moscow. Lots of the standard routes we have enquiries for are for return flights between Moscow and Nice for weekend trips.

“There’s lots of business from Moscow, St Petersburg, through Kiev, and the favourite destinations include Nice and the UK.

“There’s a lot of money now in Russia, especially in Moscow. Many people won’t consider smaller aircraft than the Lear 55, which is one reason why we bought it. Even middle-management passengers won’t consider going on the Lear 35.”

The company prefers to make such flights, as it makes the aircraft more cost-effective. “We like to get the aircraft in the air for at least two and a half hours per day, so the better the itinerary, the better the price – if you want to fly for four hours a day, I’ll give you a better price than just for one hour,” said Krahe. “We are privately-owned so we have to keep the aircraft in the air.”

As for the recent EU expansion, Krahe is mildly optimistic about business coming from the Eastern European countries. “We hope to get some new business from the Baltic states but I’m not sure how that will develop.”

Taunus is hoping to expand its fleet in the future, so long as the Lear 55 proves itself and the market can remain, at the very least, stable. “We have to get this third aircraft well established into the market before considering a fourth one,” said Krahe.

“As soon as the market develops, the price of aircraft will rise again – buying now is a good idea if you look at the prices on the market of used aircraft.