Christian Schmadlbauer started his career in 2004 at a small airline where he was thrown in at the deep end and continuously moved on, learning everything from scratch. Now he is sales team leader in a department of four at Amira Air GmbH, based at Vienna. "I emerged with a broad interest in this business and see my job as a hobby. I think it's really important to 'live' this job like that, because otherwise you run out of gas quite fast in this demanding business," he says.

"You need to be a calm person with the ability to troubleshoot everything that could possibly happen in a deliberate manner, with a focus on the important decisions."

Amira Air operates nine aircraft in its commercial charter fleet, featuring Citation CJ 2+, Hawker 400XP, Challenger 300 and Global Express types, with a new Global 5000 scheduled for delivery in January 2012.

"We have a solid customer base that we can rely on. Amira Air has been in the business for several years now and has its name and reputation in the aviation industry. We have mostly long-term business relationships and less ad-hoc flights."

Schmadlbauer's approach means that he doesn't consider any request unusual. "I think that's the reason why our clients like to fly with us, because we are different, in a positive way, to the average joe sitting in a standard airline aircraft.

"But sometimes I question the seriousness of certain requests from and to the other side of the world with positioning flights that outmatch the taxi time by a factor of two or more."

Sales events present a good opportunity for Schmadlbauer to meet colleagues with whom he talks over the phone or emails. "It's always good to be face-to-face with individuals you're doing business with," he adds.