PrivatAir SA has declared itself the first vip charter operation in Europe - and indeed, one of the first airlines in the world - to receive ISO9002 accreditation for its whole operation. It took the Zurich-based company one and a half years to achieve the milestone, which was longer than the company had at first envisaged. Speaking from PrivatAir's offices, James Hay, commercial director, told EBAN what was involved. He said: "Simply speaking, ISO is looking at what you do, writing it down, seeing if there's a better way of doing it and following the procedures that you write. Staff have got to be trained in the procedures and follow them. It's a good process, requiring hard work and we've benefited a lot out of it.\r"When you actually start the process, it is a massive undertaking in terms of time, particularly managers' time, and costs. Once you get it, that's only half the battle. Then you have to keep it, which is an ongoing process." The incentive for aviation companies, it appears, lies not so much in attracting new business as making more efficient your own. Hay said: "I don't know if we get much extra business because we've got the ISO stamp but in terms of internal efficiency, there's a few tangible cost-savings that we've achieved because we've had to look at ourselves and look at our suppliers.\r"It's not just about getting the stamp which goes on your advertising literature. It operates internally." If the concept of ISO is all about showing the authorities, and indeed yourselves, that your house is in order and working to maximum efficiency, of what benefit is it to the business aviation customer? Hay explained: "ISO accreditation is a clear message to the aviation community that we're a well-run organisation. Sometimes an organisation can be calm on the surface but underneath they aren't quite as efficient as they think they are. It gives the customer a certain amount of comfort that we know what we're doing in all aspects of our business. I imagine that most airlines would have to be pretty well organised as far their maintenance and the like is concerned, because they have to be. But it doesn't mean to say that the other sides to their business are also well managed." \rAs ISO appears to be a form of internal cleansing, EBAN asked James Hay in which areas PrivatAir found it was most lacking. Hay said: "One area in which we found we were really bad, was in sales contracts. If something had gone wrong, there was no formal procedure in place to make sure that the contracts were being sent out and signed. If there had been a hiccup, we'd have had big problems. "Another one concerned handling agents. Up until that point, we were just paying whatever they asked for. We didn't have any contracts in place but now we've got contracts with all our handling agents." Hay had a message for those who are not ISO accredited as yet. He said: "I would imagine most companies, and I know a few personally quite well, if they actually took the time to sit back and take a look at what they were doing, then they would probably find that they are not as good as they like to think they are. That was certainly the case with us." Meanwhile, PrivatAir says it is on schedule for completion of its first BBJ in early January, 2000. It is currently being completed at Lufthansa Technik, with whom the Swiss company also has a contract in place for its second BBJ. This is scheduled for completion from January to May, 2000.\rAsked why PrivatAir has chosen Lufthansa to complete both BBJs, Hay said: "We only maintain our aircraft at the top airlines - that's a basic requirement of our owners. We did actually go to a few different places but they were all pretty much the same price. We've got a good working relationship with Lufthansa and unless it was going to be a huge cost saving elsewhere, I think they were always in the driving seat as far as we were concerned."\rWhile PrivatAir has another two options for BBJs in 2001, the company is currently carrying out an exercise in fine-tuning the balance of its fleet. Hay told EBAN: "We're looking at the fleet mix at the moment because we feel we're a bit diverse. It would make more sense to have more of a fleet uniformity or at least two or three of each type. Initially, the BBJs will bring that to us because they're pretty common with the 737 so you can share the pilots. We will be looking to do the same with the other aircraft types."