Netherlands operator Winged-Dutchman Aero Service is offering an Eclipse 550 for commercial charter from Groningen airport on the AOC of Austria's Mali Air. Says owner Sjoerd-jan van Klaarbergen: “Up to now the Eclipse has mainly been used in America on a Part 135 operation. In the early days you had Jet Ready from Spain, which was operating three Eclipses, but they went bankrupt and after that Eclipse Aviation went bankrupt too.

“We have been preparing this for four years and in my opinion the Eclipse is the perfect aircraft for Europe because it covers the shorter distances and is fast. It burns 120 litres less fuel per hour than a Mustang, and flies 40 kts faster too. The average businessperson usually travels with only one or two people, and at most three. So the Eclipse fits the market, especially because it is the only jet aircraft where you can remove the seats. You have a lot of space if you only put two or three seats in the aircraft.”

It has taken four years for the operator to obtain finance and the going was tough for a while as at first only the 1.5 version of the Eclipse was certified for commercial operations. Klaarbergen then investigated the possibility of placing the aircraft on the San Marino registry.

“First of all we acted more as a charter broker,” he continues. “I was selling flights for a colleague operator. I am a businessman and in 2000 I got my European and US commercial licences. I sold my business and thought that I would combine the piloting with the entrepreneurship.

“We have just one Eclipse in the fleet at the moment. The Eclipse 550 was certified for commercial on 18 November 2015. We will have to wait and see how it is received in the market, but we are looking into the possibility of having a second aircraft by the end of the year. We have three pilots at the moment, plus myself.”

He anticipates flights to Geneva, Frankfurt, Paris and London, as well as summer ventures to Mallorca and Ibiza. “We have flights to Manchester and we also do a lot of Scandinavian flights, especially Sweden and Norway,” he explains.

“It is important to mention that we are operating on the AOC of Mali Air in Graz, Austria. This is the first operator to get an Eclipse aircraft on its AOC within two months of the aircraft being registered. This is remarkable. No operator I know of can be this quick to put a brand new aircraft on the certificate. We even managed to pick up a factory-new aircraft from the US with a European registration.

“In America they were flabbergasted that this was possible. Mali Air knows how to get things done, and being based at Groningen airport means that the aircraft is very central.” Klaarbergen has already had flight offers on it, on the back of strong relationships which he has established with brokers since the formation of the company. Winged-Dutchman will aim to fly between 350 and 400 hours in the first year, in the knowledge that Citation Mustang operators fly between 500 and 600 hours a year in Europe. “The European market is better for the smaller aircraft than the US market, because of the shorter distances,” he says.

“To put an aircraft on an AOC in the Netherlands normally takes at least nine months, and I think the fact that Mali Air is an Austrian company has a lot to do with the success we have had here, and it is an existing operator with a range of aircraft and 25 years of experience. The company doesn't have a fancy website or anything but works with 17 pilots and is doing well.”