Avcon Jet, styled the "private bank among charter operators", pledges to continue rapid expansion of a fleet which has risen to 12 aircraft with the arrival of a fourth CJ2+.

"Our company is one of the fastest growing business aviation companies in Europe," says ceo Alexander Vagacs. "We intend to continue investing in the fleet and its services with a guaranteed secure investment volume. This way, Avcon Jet and its partners will be even better equipped to exploit this market flexibly and successfully." (See Avcon targets new aircraft in EBAN July).

The new CJ2+ will be stationed at the Vienna home base and Avcon Jet anticipates it will have a high usage rate to compare favourably with that achieved by the other aircraft in its fleet in the first two quarters of 2008. "The average usage is more than 100 flight hours per month, per aircraft. Due to these figures, more and more clients see the benefit of the 'private bank among the operators' as an optimal choice for their aircraft management," says Christian Lang, Avcon Jet's cfo. "Customers are seen and treated as partners, whose investment is put in the responsible hands of Avcon Jet to gain profit. We work for adequate earnings for our selected customers, not for customer acquisition at any price. That is also why our fleet is limited to only new aircraft which meet the high demands of our customers."

Vagacs, who personally ferried the new CJ2+ from the Cessna production site in Wichita to Austria, says: "Every new aircraft is kind of a big deal and the permanent growth of our fleet makes me proud. But my big immediate priority is that our concept of acting as a private bank for our customers has the desired effect on profitability. We work with our client's capital, their aircraft, as prudently and effectively as possible. Good utilisation makes the aircraft profitable for their owners."

Werner Slavik, head of aircraft finance of Hypo Group Alpe Adria Leasing says that "our bank is looking forward to participating in more upcoming deals with Avcon Jet."

Lang says: "Flight staff are supported by an experienced team of specialists with legal and fiscal backgrounds as well as experience in the banking, finance and insurance industries. Our permanently growing fleet of at present 12 business jets covers the whole spectrum of business aviation from small to medium to large cabin."

The fleet includes the Citation series (CJ2+, CJ3, Bravo, XLS), a Learjet 45, two Challenger 300s, a Falcon F2000EX and a GV. Avcon Jet says it will receive further additions to its fleet in the next few months.