Poland's AMC Aviation is expanding the operational arm of its business, having already established itself as a provider of technical and maintenance services. The company has refurbished its 3,000 sqm heated hangar at Warsaw Modlin and is inducting a CJ1 and Learjet 60 onto its AOC. These will join the Gulfstream G280 that was registered with AMC in December 2016.

The charter business opened its doors last year, and AMC claims to be the only commercial operator in Europe offering a G280 on an ad hoc basis. These latest additions join a CJ1 and Learjet 60 that are already operating in AMC's fleet. “In early September we are going to introduce a Learjet 75 as well; we are just waiting for some paperwork from the local civil aviation authority,” explains sales and marketing director Magdalena Slawomirska. “Currently our charter fleet consists of the Gulfstream G280, two Learjet 60 XR, two CJ1 and a King Air C90.”

She considers the Learjets to be excellent aircraft: “They are good aircraft for our owners. They are good assets when you acquire them at the right price level and the return on investment is satisfactory. Learjets are not particularly well-known in this part of Europe among charter fleets, because we see a lot more Citations and Embraers around here. It is good for us to be able to offer something different from the competition. People like to fly in the Learjets, as they are fast and comfortable. You need very good pilots to fly them, but if you have those, then the outlook is good.”

She admits that charter demand will slacken once the holiday season is over, but in this respect AMC is no different from any other operator. She adds: “Because of the Gulfstream in the fleet, we have already received high interest and we are being recognised as a reliable operator, so we will be looking to strengthen these relations.

“We also have more than 20 other aircraft under a non-commercial certificate and we perform main-tenance and CAMO for them,” Slawomirska explains. “As a company we are very involved with the maintenance side, and we are quite known for that in the region but for the remainder of the year we will be trying to grow our maintenance base and our brand throughout Poland and beyond. The hangar at Warsaw Modlin is a very high quality base. It is a beautiful asset and we are going to promote it outside of Poland. We would especially like to be recognised further west.”