European fractional ownership operator European Business Jets (EBJ) is widening its activities to include aircraft management following the addition of a Cessna Citation XLS to its CJ1 fleet.
EBJ will be managing the eight-seat Farnborough-based Citation XLS on behalf of its owner - already a fractional customer - and plans to make a further five managed aircraft available for charter by the end of the year alongside three or four fractional aircraft.
EBJ says the move backs up its fractional ownership proposition launched two years ago on the UK alternative investment market with a concept based on a streamlined version of the US-pioneered fractional ownership model.
An entry-level sixteenth aircraft share costs $260,000 for 37.5h a year. Monthly charges are $5,192, plus $2,545 per flight hour, with fractional owners guaranteed a share of eventual sale proceeds.
EBJ sales and marketing director Nick Messer says: "Let's be clear, we haven't bought this aircraft with our own money. We simply stumbled across one of our existing fractional customers.
"This has not been a concerted effort on our part - we just got into it through the sheer amount of money washing around London's Square Mile. Instead of buying a share in a CJ1, these guys are getting out their chequebooks and buying the thing outright."
Messer says aircraft management will allow EBJ customers who use its fleet of two five-seater CJ1s the opportunity to use a larger aircraft on an ad hoc, one-off basis.
"Fractional will always be part of our business as five-year contracts give us an extremely structured business. And while that is growing very nicely, aircraft management gives us new revenue streams."
Source: Flight International
