Czech operator Silesia Air has registered a CitationJet 525, thereby doubling its fleet of Cessnas. Previously the company had operated a single Citation V but

saw a clear customer need for a smaller aircraft.

Paul Davey, a marketing partner who also runs Austrian company Aviation Business Consulting,

said: “The Citation V was not always the most appropriate aircraft for some shorter journeys, so following closer analysis of the sphere of operations, Sileisia Air’s manager, Tomas Karhanek, saw the need for a short range aircraft and chose the Citation Jet.”

“It’s a very economical aircraft in terms of fuel consumption and the range is perfect for our needs.” And with one Cessna already under operation, the decision to acquire another seemed obvious, as Davey notes: “We’re great believers in keeping the fleet autonomous, in other words making sure that we keep the same brand for purposes of maintenance and operations. So, at this stage at least, it was quite an easy decision to choose the CJ.”

Based in Prague, the aircraft will be flying within central, western and eastern Europe and is available for executive charter, express cargo, and air ambulance. The last of these services has proved particularly busy for Silesia Air, as Davey explains: “We’ve installed a LifePort system into the CJ to sustain one intensive stretcher patient. In addition, we can carry a medical team of three.

“We’ve also got a double stretcher system on the Citation V. Both aircraft have been doing very well in the air ambulance field and we often find the need for more than two stretchers on any particular case. Now we can fly both aircraft on one mission and transport three stretcher patients.”

With the Czech Republic newly entered into the EU, Davey says the market is developing rapidly. “It is

still a bit of an unknown area but we’re seeing quite a lot of interest and we’re working on the market ourselves. It’s very difficult to give any hard and fast figures right now, but we’re seeing a lot of interest if enquiries are anything to go by. But an area that we’re really interested in developing is the air ambulance business – that’s a definite way forward for both aircraft.”

Despite the relative youth of the Czech market and its relationship with the EU, Davey points to Air Silesia’s core customers as a major strength. “We also have our returning customers who, of course, have been utilising the Citation prior to the Czech Republic joining the EU and their needs are quite fixed, in that they know exactly what they want. Without mentioning any names, they’ll also be the decision makers when we decide to go up to the next category of aircraft: such a move would always be decided by the need of our base customers.”

Davey concurs with the industry consensus when he states that the market is growing steadily in general. “There’s interest in foreign companies wanting to base in Prague and in the Czech Republic, and obviously those sorts of people are seeing the need for services like ours. But it’s still a case of working the market, and that’s what we’re doing.

“We’re working it, we’re trying to sell business aviation in the classical sense and we’re trying to get that word ‘luxury’ out of potential customers minds, as has been done many times in the past. We aim to promote the ‘time is money’ concept to sell business aviation as an economical form of transportation, under certain circumstances.”