In what has been a busy summer of growth and development, Sierra Aviation has opened two offices at Malta International Airport and a branch in the Netherlands, as well as launching a website, located at www.sierra-aviation.com.

The company, which is headquartered in Portomaso, opened the Maltese offices in the departures terminal and on the ramp at the airport. The facility in Eindhoven, Holland, will be up and running at the beginning of September.

CEO Stanley Bugeja told EBAN: “Our core business is executive aircraft charter brokerage but, since we’re based in Malta, we also offer an FBO service here.

“We have been using Malta International Airport’s facilities, however the business really picked up over the last 12 months with the likes of NetJets coming to Malta quite frequently, so we felt we needed to have more of a presence, both in the terminal itself and on the ramp.”

Sierra offers a full FBO service at the airport, including fuelling, flight planning assistance, crew transportation and accommodation, catering and aircraft servicing. The company has noticed an increase in business aviation recently, though it admits that the country’s potential has not yet been fully explored by operators and businesses alike.

“For flights out of Malta itself, I think it’s still early days,” said Bugeja. “It’s still pretty much a new concept for the island and for the local business people. The national airline does quite a good job in terms of the locations they serve on a regular basis.

“As Malta is a popular tourist destination, quite a number of foreign airlines fly to the island so, unless

the clients are really top-end business people or in the entertainment industry, people still prefer to use the scheduled airlines into Malta. However, business aviation is picking up here – which we have witnessed

as an FBO – and the number of executive jets coming to Malta is on the increase.”

With its year-round sunshine and thriving sailing community, it is no surprise that many of the executive jets flying into Malta carry passengers destined for the marinas. “Quite a few jet set people come to take a boat to the Maltese islands, north east Africa and to the south of the Mediterranean,” said Bugeja.

According to Sierra, the majority of executive aircraft movements in Malta are from mid-size cabin aeroplanes, including Hawker 800s, Citation Excels and Falcon 50s. The number of larger cabin aircraft visiting the island – notably Falcon 900s, 2000s, Gulfstream GIVs and GVs – has also increased.

The company has tackled the issue of operating in a country that sees a relatively low number of business aviation flights by looking to the internet, making its services available, and visible, to the world.

“We launched the website so people can book and get quotes online. Now it doesn’t really matter where you are so long as you answer your telephone and give a good service to your clients.

“In fact, I would say 95 per cent of my clients are not Malta-based; I have got clients based in Dubai, Italy, France and Hong Kong.

“Also, as of the first of May, Malta joined the EU so, while two years ago it wasn’t unusual for people to ask me ‘Where the hell is Malta?’, nowadays pretty much everybody knows where Malta is,” he added.

One of the difficulties of running a charter brokerage in such a small country is the constant incon-venience of aircraft repositioning, an issue that Sierra tackles by aiming to match aircraft to clients’ needs efficiently and quickly.

“Basically that’s what a good charter broker does,” commented Bugeja. “If a client wants to go from Mikanos to Paris we try to find the best aircraft in terms of size and range, as well as location, so we can offer a good aircraft, which performs well at a good price. Most of the time repositioning is involved, but it depends on the individual request.

“We don’t operate any aircraft ourselves but, as a broker, the aircraft we use most are the Falcon 900 and 2000 – usually out of Switzerland or Italy – the Citation Excel, Lear 60 (which is based in Malta) and occasionally Challengers.”

The company’s decision to open an office in the Netherlands was driven by its desire to make its services available from a more central location within Europe. “This will take us into the heart of Europe, where a lot of business is going on and there are a lot of operators over there who we have a good rapport with.”

From its Eindhoven office, Sierra will be leasing aircraft for regional charter companies, with anything from a Beech 1900 to a Boeing 737. Although it is in the early stages, the company sees the new facility as a springboard for future projects. “The FBO service is something we do very successfully in Malta and we would be interested in doing the same in Holland, perhaps in a year’s time,” Bugeja revealed.

“Our first choice for the new location was Holland because we have an excellent rapport with a number of operators there, namely JetNetherlands, and Hendrik-Jan Groenveld, the managing director

of the Dutch facility, is heavily involved in aircraft leasing – mostly with Beech 1900s – so it was the obvious choice.

“The decision to open the facility at Eindhoven came easily. We have a number of contacts at PSV Eindhoven football club so, as they are football players, they are the type of people to use executive jet aircraft. A number of individuals have used our services already from the football club but we don’t have a contract with them yet,” concluded Bugeja.