JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON
German cargo specialist charter broker ProAir has added two aircraft to its new VIP managed fleet division, in its third month of operation.
Nice-based ProAir Côte d'Azur was founded in September on the back of an aircraft management contract for a Dassault Falcon 900. The company is set to add an as-yet undisclosed airliner-class aircraft to its managed fleet this month in a five-year deal estimated to be worth over €1 million ($1.2 million). It plans to add a Falcon 900EX by the end of the year.
Christopher Martin, director of corporate aviation at ProAir Côte d'Azur, says the company is the city's first full-service business aviation company, offering charter brokerage and maintenance as well as aircraft management. "It is a huge market and no one has a permanent presence down here," he says.
ProAir Côte d'Azur arranged nine flights from North America for the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, Monaco, in October and has brokered a total of 33 flights so far, doubling predictions for the first three months, Martin says. The majority of clients come from the music and film industries, with some industrialists, he adds.
Martin says most customers are wealthy individuals flying long-range jets, wishing to avoid connections at Paris and elsewhere. He aims to have brokered "a few hundred" flights by mid-2004.
Source: Flight International
