“In our opinion, there is no other aircraft in the world that offers such a good measure of price, performance and comfort,” exclaimed Daniela Flierl, md of Germany’s Air Go Flugservice.

Flierl was referring to the Piaggio Avanti P180 aircraft that the company has been operating for two and a half years.

According to Flierl, once a client flies in the P180, they request it every time after that.

The company chose the aircraft because it is more comfortable and spacious than many of its counterparts, and less expensive. Because of the space, some of Air Go’s disabled clients also prefer

the aircraft.

Officially the aeroplane seats eight people – seven comfortably – but on most of Air Go’s taxi flights, there is usually only one to four people on board.

Around half of the new passengers are private clients and, unlike many other charter companies, a lot of the P180’s trips across Europe and North Africa are for pleasure rather than business – transporting clients to their chosen holiday destination is a major part of Air Go’s operations.

Although the Piaggio is based in an airfield near Frankfurt, it only returns there once a week on average and last year spent about 550 hours in the air.

Frierl is so pleased with the

P180 that the only adjustment Air Go has made to the aircraft

is to connect the global

positioning system to a second emergency battery, as an additional safety measure.

Demand for the aircraft is growing, says Flierl, and she anticipates that the number of hours’ flight time will increase to over 600 hours in 2005 and, provided that it can attract enough investment, the company is looking to acquire a second P180.