Italy's expanding MustFly, part of the Aeroservices Group, has chosen the Citation Mustang for its fleet development. It has ordered 18 Mustangs for delivery by 2012. "They will be marketed for fractional ownership and also traditional air taxi," says the company's Riccardo Filippi. "We truly believe that this is a good time for proactive small to medium companies to win business in the private aviation sector."

The Aeroservices Group also includes ItAli Airlines, maintenance companies, a flight school and a maintenance technician school, run in partnership with Lufthansa Technical Training. "We have a brand new facility in Pescara and many students are joining this programme," says Filippi. "We can train pilots and technicians in-house and draw on them for our future personnel and we believe this makes us stronger than other companies."

ItAli Airlines launched in 2001 and operates five MD-82s, two Dornier 328Js, two SA-227 Fairchild Metroliners, a C-500 and five Citation Mustangs. "Summer time is a good period for most air operators and our MD-80s are flying, on a chartered basis, extensively," Filippi says. "Main clients include Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, a premier religious tour operator in Italy, which services destinations including Lourdes, Tel Aviv and Santiago de Compostela. We are also flying for some of the largest traditional tour operators."

Trevor Esling, Cessna's vp international sales, says: "MustFly's decision to base its business model on the Mustang proves the aircraft is ideal for many types of air charter service across Europe."