Geneva, Switzerland-based AOC operator Swiss Private Jet (SPJ) has secured its designation as a Wyvern Wingman certified operator, following a successful audit conducted by Wyvern in January.

“As a young operator, reaching the Wyvern Wingman status is a great milestone as it attests that our processes are rigorous and on par with the best industry standards. Aside from the pride that we take in a job well done, this is an opportunity for us to develop new business relationships, as this certification is regarded globally as a testament of professionalism,” says CEO Benjamin Périé.

A lot has happened over the last year for the company. This first year has seen 1,368 flight hours logged across 641 sectors flown, to 154 different destinations in 48 countries. In January it received approval for London City airport operations for its Phenom 300, and in December it was officially FAA Part 129 approved, enabling it to fly commercially to and from the US.

Senior charter sales executive Jonathan Grimal describes the Swiss Private Jet story so far: “We started off with one aircraft, which is the Global 6000. There have been two additions to the fleet since then, which are two Phenom 300s. Our goal is to develop the fleet and continue to grow with new aircraft being added. We’d like to remain at a boutique size though. Our goal would be to have a maximum of seven aircraft.

“We’d like to have some large cabins like the Global – newer ones would be nice. We’d also like an intermediary between the Phenom fleet and the Global, maybe something like a midsize jet or something like that.

“We don’t have specific routes as such; we go everywhere with the Global, mainly to the US. That would be the main market we have; flights between the US and Europe. We also do a lot of South Africa, for example, and the Middle East. We go to South America quite a lot too. With the Phenom it’s all over Europe mainly. Because we have a Swiss AOC, we’re able to perform internal flights in Switzerland as well, which not a lot of operators in the market can do. It’s a niche for us, because there are quite a few requests and not a lot of aircraft that can actually perform those flights.”

Grimal goes on to say that the Global is keeping busy, flying all the time between maintenance. “It’s been good because since we started we’ve had the chance to gain the trust of a few clients that are constantly asking for our aircraft again. Our goal is to provide the best service possible in this type of cabin. This has been a factor in people coming back to us and frequently flying with us. It’s important to us to have these people flying with us in the future. Having a few extra aircraft in the fleet would be a nice goal for the coming year.”