Augusta Air has taken delivery of a Citation XLS. The charter operator acquired the aircraft in September and it began operations in October.

The aircraft is based in Augsburg, Germany (25 nm west of Munich), a town founded by Caesar Augustus around 2,000 years ago. The XLS will operate all over Europe, and respond to particularly high demand for charter business emerging from Russia. The company also operates a Citation Excel and chose the XLS because its type-rated pilots can fly either aircraft.

Although the demand in October and November tends to drop, Augusta is expecting business to pick up once again during December and January when the demand for charter flights between Moscow and ski resorts in the Swiss Alps, France and Austria rises.

The company expects the latest addition to fly between 60 to 80 hours per month - slightly below the 100 hours achieved by other aircraft in the fleet - depending on demand.

Schirmer gained his type rating in June this year at FlightSafety in Wichita. Two new co-pilots underwent training and the other remaining pilots also had to complete a conversion course as part of the JAR ops regulations; a requirement that surprised Augusta.

"Unless you operate the aircraft commercially you don't even need to do a conversion course," Schirmer said. "When we picked up the aircraft at Cessna they laughed when we told them we had to do a conversion course. The authorities say it's one type rating.

"But the authorities want pilots to complete the conversion course because one or two parts of the operating system are different. It would be nice if somebody with a type rating, one of your colleagues say, could just show you the differences between the aircraft rather than having to do a course. If you ask me it's not necessary, but it's a regulation. They wanted us to do it so we did."