Air Charter Scotland has taken delivery of a Citation CJ2+, which will be added to the company's Maltese AOC. The organisation has been operating a CJ fleet since 2001, specialising in the 525 series. “It’s been the backbone of the company’s aircraft operations, that type, and takes us to where we are today,” comments accountable manager Derek Thomson. “So it was a logical addition but this time it’s on the Malta side of the fleet. We opened our Maltese AOC in August 2020 just after Brexit, and we’ve just been steadily building the fleet. The CJ2+ complements what we’ve already got in Malta with the Excels and the Challenger, so it’s a fantastic addition, such a popular aircraft.”

Common routes will be locations like Nice, Palma, Ibiza, Malaga, Geneva to name but a few. “Olbia as well. So we’ll travel to some nice locations. I’m not sure it will differ massively from the places that we go to today, but it’s certainly a capable aircraft and one that is popular on those routes.”

Thomson says the year to date has been okay. On the lighter jets side it’s a little bit quiet compared to this time last year. Midsize and heavy jets are performing as he's expect them to. “So it’s maybe not quite the bounce that everybody would’ve had from Covid. It’s definitely calmed down and settled as the airlines have recovered. They came to a grinding halt quite quickly, and it’s taken them such a long time to get going again. I think there were a lot of people who came in to private aviation who hadn’t travelled that way before that are now sticking with private aviation, which is definitely a benefit for our company but also most companies that are working in private aviation.

“We’ve got a lot of forward bookings. People are planning a lot more travel than they used to, to avoid disappointment with availability. So we’ve got quite a strong list of forward booked flights over the summer months, and we expect this to continue to grow. We’re expecting a strong summer ahead. We’re working on another midsize aircraft that’s going to be joining the fleet this year, another addition for our Malta fleet. We’ve got another aircraft joining our UK fleet as well, on the super light jet side on the UK fleet. We are expecting growth in the overall fleet this year but it’ll be a mixture of the UK side and the Malta side. Some owners prefer their aircraft to be registered in the UK, whereas some can see after Brexit that we have grown the Maltese AOC, and they would much rather have their aircraft registered in Europe, which is all understood, and that is the benefit and the joy for us of having multiple AOCs; that’s a nice place for us to be.”

Air Charter Scotland is pleased to announce its first commitment to a worthy environmental and community project. It is teaming with global sustainability consultancy South Pole to fully offset carbon emissions from its business jet fleet based out of London (Biggin Hill and Luton airports), Glasgow and Malta. Clients and charter brokers will be offered the option, effective immediately.

After close consultation with South Pole, Air Charter Scotland determined its initial project will help support a new, hydro power water project located on the Du River in the Hubei Province in China. Newly designed to aid the supply of clean energy, it delivers clean electricity through the hydropower station with an installed capacity of 500MW, reducing pollution for the local community.

“We have been evaluating doing something meaningful and tangible on carbon emissions for some time now,” says Thomson. The business, founded 21 years ago, is looking forward to building its business relationship with South Pole, where it hopes to support other international projects after an initial 12 months. Air Charter Scotland is also investigating a suitable nature project in the UK to invest in later this year. “Aviation contributes to 2.5 per cent of all global CO2 output. Business aviation contributes a fraction of that – no more than 0.2 per cent - and our sector continues to lead in the drive to sustainability with next gen alternative powered aircraft the widening supply of sustainable aviation fuel at business aviation airports,” he highlights.