Capital Air Charter of Exeter in the UK has placed its first jet into charter operations. The operator is to offer a CJ3 alongside its existing fleet of King Airs and Chieftain, and will benefit from the greater range and payload of the Citation.

“The jet has greater range and payload than its predecessors and we are very pleased with its performance so far. It also gives our flight crew the chance of promotion within the company; having a jet on the AOC gives us a great platform to add further aircraft in the coming years,” says md and chief pilot at Capital Malcolm Humphries.

Biggin Hill-based software company Total AOC was appointed to handle the type approval after it successfully took Capital Air Charter through the EASA transition last year. Humphries explains: “After handling our manual rewrites last year, I had every confidence in Total AOC and felt very comfortable with it handling our AOC type approval. That confidence was rewarded because it carried out the amendment work exactly to the timescale we required, enabling us to put our new aircraft into operation as soon as possible.”

He continues: “The team at Total AOC was phenomenally knowledgeable and hardworking. Approvals were carried out exactly as we wished. We've enjoyed working with Total AOC and we have established a partnership. We have had great service and hope to work with the team again as we continue to grow.”

Capital Air Charter has provided charter, freight and air ambulance services from Exeter for the last 26 years. It offers services across Europe, including the Mediterranean. It became part of the Rigby Group in August 2014 and as part of this programme of growth has purchased the CJ3, which will be used internally as well as in the commercial executive market. Humphries says that adding a jet to the fleet will significantly enhance Capital's capabilities: “We are now able to offer corporate, middle management and top executive travel. The King Air is great at high capacity, short field operations and the CJ3 will give us entry into an executive market that we have never been able to fulfil."