Air Charter Scotland, an ad hoc fixed-wing charter operator, has acquired a Beech 200 King Air, which joins a Citation CJ1 and five single engine Cessna aircraft.

The company bought the aircraft from Sterling Aviation in Norwich, a TRTO which was assigned to train the pilots over three weeks as part of the purchase agreement.

Said operations manager Derek Thompson: “We identified a need in the market for a turboprop, as a lot of our customers were looking for a pressurised aircraft which offers good performance.”

The King Air will be operated primarily for charter passenger missions but will also undertake

freight and air ambulance work, chartered by brokers or ambulance companies directly.

“We find that crewing can be quite difficult for the jet from time to time and it’s often in demand, so we needed a dedicated high performance aircraft, which can also perform crew transfers and ambulance flights during the night – something we do regularly now.

“The CitationJet really comes into its own over longer distances of about three hours, whereas the King Air tends to struggle a little bit over really long sectors, but for fights from here to Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels, then it is perfectly adequate,” Thompson added. “It’s versatile enough to go into shorter airfields like Skye, Cumbernauld and Perth, for example.”

Two months on from buying the aeroplane, Air Charter Scotland had already logged 100 hours. “It’s been received fantastically well; our clients have been surprised at how comfortable it is and they always comment on the amount of room it offers. The club four arrangement is very popular.

If the B200 proves its worth by the end of this the year, then the company may acquire an additional aircraft. “Over a year we’re hoping to log between 400 to 500 hours. We believe there may be a market for more than one aircraft – we’re going to prove ourselves with this one aircraft first of all.

“A new aircraft would most likely be the same type but we are also looking at the Bravo as an addition to the CJ1. We know there is a need for another aircraft,” he concluded.