JetNetherlands has expanded to open a new centre of operations in Eindhoven, where it will have its own hangar for up to four jets, and supporting offices and facilities. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam and has existing remote bases at Rotterdam and in Moscow.

"We have appointed a station manager, and will base a Mustang, Piaggio Avanti, Challenger 850 and Citation VI over there," says sales manager Rieko Dalhuisen. "These aircraft will be able to serve the demand for charter from Eindhoven. We will also base our daughter company AZ Exclusive Travel in those offices to continue to take care of vip demand for holidays, trips, excursions, cruises and so on. This will bring all JNL related offices there together in one space."

The company has also expanded its aircraft roster. "With these new aircraft JetNetherlands is becoming one of the larger operators in the Benelux serving our clients all kinds of aircraft, varying from very light to heavy jets," adds Dalhuisen.

The highly diverse fleet now comprises two Mustangs, Citations CJ2, CJ3, VI and two XLS, three Piaggio Avanti II, a Gulfstream 200, a Falcon 2000EX, Challenger 850 and privately operated Beech 400. One of the XLS jets and the Falcon are based in Moscow flying a long-term lease. Last summer the company moved into offices in the new GA terminal at Amsterdam Schiphol airport and now occupies the whole of the left first floor wing of the modern glass building. An executive lounge alongside is now in the pipeline.

The growing fleet has enabled JetNetherlands to welcome back some former air crew who had left the company due to reductions a few years back, as well as fresh recruits.

The maintenance, quality and training departments each had to hire more people to get all the paperwork fixed and up to speed, while operations and sales also needed to grow as the company almost doubled its line up of jets. "It is all very challenging but all our personnel are working really hard as a team to make it happen," says Dalhuisen.

Operating in Moscow has brought its own problems: "In winter the temperatures mean we have to issue full winter gear to our crews," he says. "Language is an issue too, so we operate with Russian cabin crew. And we need to operate with Russian navigators on board as some airfields are really different to the typical European destinations. We have two apartments in Moscow, one for the Falcon crews and one for our XLS crew."

In the coming year JetNetherlands aims to get all the aircraft onto its AOC. "I think we will have enough challenges operating and selling all these jets and keeping our aircraft owners and customers happy."