Hendell Aviation, headquartered in Finland, has witnessed a spike in demand for PC-12s over the last 12 months, and is focusing its efforts on the central European market. CEO Mikael Lees is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been working alongside Fly7 to promote a 13-strong fleet, comprising six private and seven commercial aircraft.

"It is hard to tell how much the EASA SET Ops regulation has had to do with our recent activity," he tells EBAN. "I would say it has had a slight influence. PC-12 charter demand has increased, and we have a lot of aircraft coming in with owners who are interested in moving their previous private operations into commercial, as well as new first time aircraft owners.

"Demand for the PC-12 in Europe is higher than ever before, and some of this is related to the opportunity to fly commercially, but I do believe that a lot of it is due to a general trend towards these types of aircraft. It has certainly been a positive period for us since the regulations came in."

Lees is post holder for the Hendell AOC and is also COO of Fly7. He is looking at ways to deepen the relationship between the two companies, and training provision is one priority: "We are constantly looking at avenues to improve the quality and efficiency of our flight training. There is no simulator for the PC-12 in Europe currently, so we do all of the training on aircraft, as well as an uncertified device that the factory has. We are very open to solutions to improve training, especially with the rate that we are growing."

Much of the demand Hendell is seeing comes from central Europe, and very few of its enquiries originate from Finland. "We have aircraft in St Sebastian in Spain, one in Germany, one in Cannes, and we are looking at Austria, Paris, Berlin and London too," Lees explains. "We are targeting at least one aircraft in the UK by the end of the year, and somewhere around London would be ideal. But the whole fleet is managed, so it depends on what the owner is looking for. We believe the UK is a huge market for the PC-12.

"PC-12 interest is very Europe-wide, and we are seeing a lot of new aircraft being delivered into the UK by Oriens," he says.

Hendell is looking to add more aircraft, hopefully reaching between 17 and 20 by the end of the year with its combined fleet. "We are pure Pilatus for now but would consider other single engine turbine options too," Lees concludes.