Portuguese operator Valair has added another Citation CJ3 to its fleet this month. The aircraft is the company's fourth CJ3, with three based at Cascais airport and another in Malaga.

“We are very happy with the performance of the jet,” says sales manager Nuno Gomes da Silva. “In our opinion it is one of the best in its class for charter in Europe and north Africa. The CJ3 is our most popular jet too, in terms of capability. It has great range, can carry a good number of passengers, and direct costs, performance and after sales assistance have always been strong.”

Positioned in the west of Europe, Valair tends to perform flights lasting at least two hours to European destinations such as Paris, Nice, Geneva, Milan, London and Dublin. It also frequents neighbour Spain, regularly travelling to Malaga, Ibiza, Barcelona and Madrid. Gomes da Silva says that one trend he has seen is customers travelling with pets; around half of Valair's flights now include provisions for animals.

He continues: “After the first wave of the pandemic last year, we saw a decreasing number of flights but only for a short period, I would say during April. After May, it really turned up and by the end of the season we'd had the best summer in our history. This year the restrictions increased, but we are flying quite well, so I have no complaints. We believe that after April and May we will face a new boom of flights in our class, as soon as Europe starts to open again. People are eager to fly, and we believe that the movement we noticed last year, from passengers from traditional airlines moving to private jets, will continue to occur as we look ahead.”

The company is in the final approval stage for a new hangar at Cascais. Once complete it will, says da Silva, be the largest facility at the airport. “It will be crucial for us in order to develop our maintenance capacity and to hangar the aircraft we manage and some prospects we have. We also want to continuously strength our position with our direct customers and with our dedicated and loyal brokers. It was impossible to achieve our targets without them.

“Our hope is for another aircraft in our fleet to support their demand and their diverse schedules. We strongly believe that 2021 will be a good year for charter aviation globally.”