As it looks to rekindle growth in 2024, business aircraft management and charter operator Luxaviation UK is adding three jets to its fleet. The first of these, an Embraer Praetor 600, was formally unveiled at its new London Biggin Hill Airport base this week, and two more are due to arrive before the end of next month.
According to Luxaviation UK CEO George Galanopoulos, demand in 2023 was softer than in the Covid-bounceback year that preceded it. While hoping the market would stabilize, he acknowledged potentially destabilizing factors such as two major military conflicts, rising interest rates, and inflation. “In some cases, new [charter] customers started going back to the airlines, which have been getting their act together again after the pandemic,” he commented during the event at Biggin Hill on Wednesday attended by 150 industry representatives.
The Luxaviation group holds air operator certificates (AOCs) in 15 countries with a combined fleet of more than 260 jets and helicopters. Apart from the UK arm, Galanopoulos told AIN that the AOCs in Dubai and San Marino are also seeing new owners look to put their aircraft under management.
In recent years, Galanopoulos and his London-based team have found management and charter clients to be increasingly mindful of the environmental impact of their travel arrangements. He said more people want to be able to choose to pay the premium for sustainable aviation fuel, wherever this can be sourced. In some cases, he said that customers insist on using a smaller aircraft even if they can afford a larger one, believing that this will make them less visible and more unlikely to attract adverse attention from those opposed to private aviation.
While Luxaviation’s various AOC operations benefit from economies of scale across the group, each national entity enjoys some latitude in how they deliver their services. In Galanopoulos’ view, this is important in avoiding the impression that customers might not get individual, personalized attention.
It is now four years since the UK left the European Union as part of the Brexit process. Galanopoulos told AIN that separation from EASA’s regulatory framework continues to cause significant problems for UK operators in terms of requirements for pilot licensing and airworthiness approvals that complicate cross-border operations.
“I knew this would be a nightmare, and it is,” he commented. “While flight permit [processes] have settled down a bit and we have bilateral agreements with most European countries, this is nothing like what we wanted it to be. Pilot licensing, as the shortage only gets worse, is a nightmare, and the same applies to airworthiness and simulator approvals; and it’s nothing more than politics.”
The new Praetor 600 is being managed by Luxaviation for a private owner.