A Hawker 700A is the latest aircraft to join the fleet at Eurojet Italia. The aircraft will be managed on behalf of the owner, Azimut Benetti, who also owns a luxury yacht factory.

The Hawker will be used predominantly by Benetti for business trips and to transport the clients to the factory to see their yachts being produced.

Since the beginning of 2006 it has been used for air taxi services. Although the aircraft was acquired last year, it has undergone significant refurbishment of both the interior and exterior.

Because it is an older aeroplane the work took several months to complete and included the installation of a new fuselage, as well as paint work and technical avionics upgrades.

"It's a beautiful aeroplane," said Leopoldo Guidi, Eurojet's marketing and communications manager. "Although after the refurbishment it probably cost the same as buying a newer aircraft, but the owner

and charter clients are very happy with it."

The 700A will be based in Milan but it will also spend time in Cuneo, near Turin. Most of Eurojet's fleet, which includes a Learjet 45, Challenger 601 and Global Express, are based in Milan, flying all over central Europe. One Learjet 60 is based in Treviso, near Venice.

Eurojet is an official Bombardier agent, so it is no surprise that it manages eight of its aircraft and

is planning to acquire a Learjet 40 in June 2006.

Guidi explained: "Eventually, we plan to expand our business to Eastern Europe and acquire a mid-size aircraft that will allow us to tap into the Russian market. Most of our customers are based in Italy at the moment, but we have another branch in Cannes and Skyjet in London is a big customer for us.

"Within Italy there is not much competition as far as air taxi is concerned. NetJets continues to have an impact on business in Italy and elsewhere and we haven't ruled out starting our own fractional ownership scheme, but there are no plans right now," he concluded.