Entrepreneurs are spearheading the development of aircraft management and charter in the north west of Ireland as the region's businessmen abandon the frustrations of scheduled flights in favour of more efficient private charter.

Two new operations, one management and one combining management and charter, are evolving at Enniskillen Airport.

David Eames is a partner in Enniskillen Jets, which is managing two Citations, a Bravo and a 500. A former airline pilot with more than 37 years' experience at Air Lingus, he and partner Malcolm McKittrick

are managing the aircraft for a property developer based in County Antrim. "We have been working on this since Christmas and launched recently," he told EBAN. "The aircraft are used for business trips in Ireland and out to the south of France and Malaga. There is scope to develop further management operations."

Corporate Air, which owns a Navajo, Chieftain and B200, has been set up by ten shareholders who run businesses in Fermagh, Tyrone and Londonderry. The businesses include management of manufacturing companies, car dealers, racehorse owners and security consultants.

The plans are to develop charter to other businessmen seeking to avoid the frustrations of scheduled travel in Ireland and the U.K. The aircraft will be managed by Northsky Aviation run by two pilots who both have an engineering background, operations manager Tony Ringland and md Keith Kane.

Ringland says: "There are a great many businessmen in Ireland who own aircraft that they use for business purposes. These aircraft have spare capacity and it makes sense to charter them out when not in use. Individual owner companies might only use an aircraft for 50 hours a year so there is plenty of spare capacity."

He adds: "Initially the business will be based on three aircraft. We want to expand this in due course to offer air charter and air ambulance services with the aircraft managed by us."

Northsky Aviation is looking at servicing a wide geographical area in the north west of Ireland from its main base at the developing

airport of Enniskillen. Flights will originate from and return to airports including the City of Derry, Donegal, Sligo and Knock. "These are five airports in the north west of Ireland that are not serviced properly from the corporate or private charter aspect," says Ringland.

Ringland is a construction engineer who began flying 33 years ago. Kane is a civil engineer who holds a commercial pilot's licence. They have been flying businessmen to destinations in the U.K. and the idea grew out of a desire by the owners to use the aircraft profitably.

Ringland says: "Companies in Ireland are using jets more frequently. It can be very time-consuming to use scheduled flights from north west Ireland to England and Wales. Just one meeting on a weekday can end up with a businessman being away from workplace and home for three days."

Alan Cathcart, director/manager of Enniskillen Airport Ltd, says that annual fixed wing business aircraft movements have grown to more than 250 a year with helicopter movements exceeding 8,000 annually. Two helicopter maintenance and sales companies, Sloane Helicopters and London Helicopter Centres, have established bases at Enniskillen.