Belgian operator Abelag is to be incorporated into Luxembourg business aviation group Luxaviation. This year is Luxaviation's fifth anniversary and it is marking it by integrating Abelag, which employs over 300 people and operates more than 50 aircraft in Benelux, Germany and France. Abelag will keep its name, and has been integrated in the same manner as Fairjets back in 2009.

Abelag brings 50 years of business aviation experience while Luxaviation will give the operator access to its international network, which it is looking to expand by opening an Asian office in Singapore at the end of June. The partnership will make use of synergies in maintenance, training and customer acquisition fields.

Barth Foucart, executive director of Abelag, says: “At the dawn of our 50th anniversary celebration, the association with Luxaviation paves the way for new opportunities. We will focus on the continuous optimisation of our services as well as the diversification of our activities.”

Ceo Hervé Laitat adds: “By joining Luxaviation, we will continue to offer our clients high quality services while taking profit from the full range of advantages only an international group can provide.”

Abelag was created in 1964 and is headquartered in Brussels with subsidiaries in Kortrijk, Antwerp, Eindhoven and Paris. It employs 45 pilots and its charter fleet includes two Beechcraft 200, three CJ2, two CJ3, one Citation Ultra, three Learjet 45, six Citation XLS, four Falcon 2000EX and two Falcon 7X.