Czech operator Aeropartner's Citation Mustang sector from Prague to Wroclaw in March was the 10,000th flight handled by ABS Jets, based at Vaclav Havel International. ABS says it has seen steadily increasing demand for handling services since it became a licensed handling agent at the airport in 2008.

Besides providing executive handling services to Aeropartner, ABS also offers dispatch services, as well as hangarage for the fellow operator's fleet of seven aircraft.

“We have moved our operating base and our complete fleet to the ABS facilities because it falls in line with our need for a safe operation and care of our aircraft,” says Richard Santus, Aeropartner ceo. “The cooperation between our two companies has been mutually beneficial and will be further developed in future.”

When ABS doesn't have enough capacity with its own fleet, it is able to make use of the two Cessna Citation CJ2s and three Mustangs owned by its ally.

Aeropartner was founded in 2001 with a Czech AOC. The company is said to strongly support the heritage of Czechoslovak aviators, and its crews often fly in British historic Royal Air Force (RAF) uniform as a tribute to exiled Czechoslovak second world war airmen. The international call sign of Aeropartner is 'Dark Blue' and the air carrier code is 'DFC'. This also stands for the 'Distinguished Flying Cross', a British distinction to airmen who demonstrate acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty. During the second world war dozens of Czechoslovaks were awarded the DFC by the RAF.

ABS Jets director of ground operations Jan Kralik pays tribute to the partnership between the companies and the hard work of his handling staff: “We have a dedicated team and expertise in very light jets through to heavy jets. Being an established business jet operator ourselves gives us the competitive advantage to fully understand the needs and requirements of demanding business jet customers.

“We initially started the executive handling services for our own fleet and customers and as we expanded providing our services to third party clients, we continued to treat them with the same high quality standards that our owners expect.”