Story ID: 
Ocean Sky on a buying spree
By: AIN Staff
Caption: Kurosh Tehranchian, CEO of UK-based Ocean Sky Aviation (Booth No.
Word Count: 380
Kurosh Tehranchian, CEO of UK-based Ocean Sky Aviation (Booth No. 1251), announced at EBACE that the company has received from its shareholders $48 million in additional funding, which the company plans to use to acquire other charter operators and FBOs, particularly in Europe. Ocean Sky also reported that it has signed 11 more jets under management contracts since the beginning of January, doubling the number of aircraft it has under management and attributing the increase to demand in Russia and the CIS.“We are looking in particular at FBOs, MROs and quality aircraft charter and management companies,” Tehranchian said. “The main criteria is that acquisitions we make must complement our current offerings.” The decision to grow the company, he said, is a direct result of the increasing volume of opportunities available due to the current economic situation.“The money we have raised,” he said, “is an indication of our existing shareholders’ absolute belief in our plans and in the fact that economic cycles do turn. Our business is sound and we have no significant debt, something we wish to maintain.”Ocean Sky began as an aircraft broker in 2003 and expanded to full aircraft service in 2005. It has FBOs in Manchester, Glasgow Prestwick and Luton and offices in London, Zurich and Moscow. The company attributes its increase in managed aircraft to an intensive scrutiny of costs and charges, which allowed it to reduce costs to clients by up to 30 percent. “Looking at what was happening in the global economy, we took the decision last year to review all overhead,” said Ocean Sky managing director aircraft sales and acquisitions Niki Rokni.She said that while few owners want to sell their jets in the current market because of depressed prices, they do want to keep their aircraft flying at lower operating costs. “The fact that owners are signing up with Ocean Sky is testimony to our proactive approach to costs,” said Rokni. “We have to be realistic about how we help our clients survive this downturn, both for our sake and theirs.”The aircraft added under Ocean Sky management, all with owners in Russia and the CIS, are two Gulfstream G150s, three G450s, one G550, one Challenger 604, two Challenger 605s and two Falcon 900s (representing the first relationship between Ocean Sky and Dassault).