Norwich, UK-based SaxonAir, a sales agent for Nextant Aerospace remanufactured aircraft, is reporting strong sales interest following completion of the first test flight of the Nextant G90XT, which is based on the King Air 90 airframe. Following its appearance at EBACE, the demonstrator aircraft will be positioned in Europe and based at the operator's Norwich airport base for a short time.

Head of aircraft sales Caleb Whitehead says that the reason that SaxonAir has chosen to support Nextant is because designing a clean sheet aircraft requires the end user to foot the bill. “That is what is going to push a three million dollar aircraft up to six million dollars,” he explains.

The G90XT is currently completing its certification flights, and according to Nextant's chief pilot is more than meeting its performance criteria. “Initially the aircraft is a little bit faster, has got a much better time to climb, and performs a lot better at altitude than anticipated,” says Whitehead.

The operator has already commenced commercial flight operations with Europe's first Nextant 400XTi under its own AOC. In addition to owner flights it has been made available for charter.