Servair has added a refurbished 1988 Gulfstream GIV to its fleet of managed aircraft based at Zurich, Switzerland.

Martin Helbling, accountable manager, told EBAN: “The owner has given us the authority to charter it out. We hope to fly in the region of 700 hours in total; the owner will be flying between 100 and 200 hours per year.

“Due to the fact that it has a 12 seat interior, I assume that we will have different types of charter clients – bigger groups for road shows, for example, or musicians with their groups; also certain individuals flying out of Eastern Europe.”

Servair operates two Citation Excels, which are owned by the company, and manages a Falcon 2000. The GIV, which will be making most of its flights to Africa, the Middle East and occasionally across the North Atlantic, will be chartered out at about $7,000 per hour.

“It has the reputation of being the best business aircraft in its category; the GIV is the Rolls Royce of the big size business jets. It has a great reputation technically, in terms of reliability, and also with the clients,” said Helbling.

“You cannot land at every airport the client wants – that’s the big disadvantage. Also it’s very expensive,” he added.

The company has witnessed strong growth in the charter market in Switzerland lately: “The market

is growing but, depending on the economic development of Europe and the rest of the world, it could very easily change,” said Helbling, “so I wouldn’t make a prediction for more than 12 months away, but for the next year I would say we will have a growth of between five to 15 per cent.”

Servair is hoping to acquire another aircraft by the end of the year, either in the mid-size or large cabin category.