A fractional ownership programme, which eventually plans to offer shares in the Sino Swearingen SJ30-2 light business jet, has been unveiled in the USA.
Dallas, Texas-based SJ30 distributor SevenBar has launched its Ascend fractional ownership programme by offering shares in two used Raytheon Beech King Air B200 twin-turboprops. The SJ30 will be introduced in 2002, with SevenBar planning to sell shares in aircraft it already has on order.
Ascend is a regional programme serving the south-west USA from SevenBar's Dallas Love Field base. A minimum one-eighth share in a King Air B200 will cost $287,500 and guarantees the owner 100h a year. Shareholders will pay a $6,000 monthly management fee and $850 per occupied hour. For an equivalent share in the SJ30-2 programme customers will pay $650,000. An $8,500 monthly management fee and a rate of $1,050 per occupied hour are also levied.
Initially the scheme will be built around used eight-passenger, 2,600km (1,400nm)-range King Air B200s, but SevenBar says it may add "another type, probably new" before the SJ30 becomes available. In addition to being an SJ30 distributor, SevenBar owns a fleet of 28 aircraft and is a major fixed-wing air medical operator.
Sino Swearingen has clinched 75 orders for the SJ30, which flew for the first time last November.
Source: Flight International