ProAir charter transport of Filderstadt, Germany, is to take delivery of a Falcon 2000, its first managed business jet to be chartered commercially, in December. The company chose to take on management of the aircraft in order to add another string to its bow as a charter operator and aircraft broker.

ProAir’s management and sales division will hold the management agreement with the aircraft owner, and the charter company will market the aeroplane.

The eight-seat Falcon 2000 features internet access, telephone and fax machine and can fly up to seven hours non-stop. “With this aircraft we are more flexible and can meet the requirements of our customers,” said md Elmar Monreal.

“The management as well as the operation of the aircraft will rest in one hand and all the necessary functions will work together. With this, ProAir will leave behind its image of acting exclusively as an aircraft broker and will invest more and more in this segment.”

The owner of the aircraft intends to replace the Falcon 2000 with a brand-new 10-seat Falcon 2000EX EASy, which will be added to ProAir’s fleet in September 2005.

“The customer didn’t want to wait for the aircraft so he got an interim aircraft from Dassault Aviation until his 2000EX EASy comes online,” commented Monreal.

The company anticipates that the owner of the aircraft will make about 100 to 150 flight hours per year, with a further 500 to 600 hours of charter performed by ProAir.

Monreal believes these flight hours are achievable, thanks to a growing European charter market. “It’s picking up,” he said, “the main business is not coming out of Germany; it’s coming out of the eastern parts of Europe. We’ve noticed more and more business for the Cannes-based Citation Excel we operate privately. There’s quite a bit of business out of Russia – we’re privately operating two Falcon 900s for a Russian customer.”

The Falcon 2000 will be subcontracted to a third prty AOC, though ProAir is considering acquiring its own AOC in the future.