German business jet charter operator Luminair is to add three new Dassault Falcon 900LX aircraft before the end of the year.
Hamburg-based Luminair has been established by industry specialists David Bergold, Alexander Stevens, Julia Feddern and Algernon Trotter and obtained its air operator certificate in November.
It currently operates three Citation XLS aircraft but is adding the Falcon 900LX jets as part of a wider multi-aircraft type long-term fleet growth strategy.
“Luminair is a very young company. We find ourselves a very small player currently in the market and the advantage of the 900 is that none of our competitors operate the aircraft and [it means] we can operate lots of different missions using the platform,” said Luminair founder Trotter, during a briefing at the Paris air show today to mark the additional aircraft. “So we are delighted we can come very strongly into the market with these three airframes.”
Luminair’s business model is based on high aircraft utilisation using reliable aircraft, which has already seen the operator’s fleet total 957 flight hours since the start of the year.
“This is a system we developed and refined over more than a decade of experience,” says founder and chief executive Bergold. ”We provide our clients with a reliable, customer-focused and operationally robust experience, while providing our aircraft lessors a strong return on investment on asset purchases.”
Bergold and Trotter were both previously with private jet operator Air Hamburg, which became part of Vista Global Holding in 2022. “We saw in our previous role that there is a scale that is very effective and it tends to be in the 20-50 aircraft [range],” says Trotter. “I’m not saying we will definitely get there, but I think in the dreamworld that scale is optimal both for the aircraft investor and the profitability side.”
