Canadian aerospace group Bombardier will expand its FlexJet fractional ownership programme to Europe from January. The company will begin operations with three core-fleet aircraft, a light Learjet 31A, mid-size Learjet 60 and large Challenger 604.
Negotations are under way with potential partners which have the operating certificate needed to launch FlexJet in Europe, says Dennis Keith, Bombardier Business JetSolutions president .
"We have a couple of choices," he says. "We will make a final decision in the next 30-45 days. It's down to tax issues in the country of the operating certificate." Tax rules affect the details of fractional ownership.
Keith says the US FlexJet programme will involve 63 aircraft and 350 owners by the end of Bom-bardier's financial year on 31 January, 1999. The programme "...will be pushing 100 aircraft a year from now", he predicts.
In part to support the growing FlexJet fleet, Bombardier has signed a memorandum of understanding with SimuFlite Training International to build and operate a Learjet pilot and maintenance training centre in Dallas, Texas, to open in May 2000.
The $60 million centre will be an expansion of SimuFlite's training base, with capacity for up to 10 devices, and initially will house two simulators for the Learjet 45 and one each for the 31A and 60, says Bombardier Business Aircraft president Mike Graff.
The company is also looking at opening a service centre in Texas, in part to offset the loss of capacity suffered when Gulfstream purchased Dallas-based K-CAviation earlier this year. K-C was a major independent provider of service for Bombardier business jets.
SimuFlite has announced its own expansion plans, and will acquire up to 10 new simulators for its Dallas training centre. The company plans to add at least five new training programmes by mid-2001, with aircraft produced by Cessna, Gulfstream and Raytheon under consideration.Source: Flight International
