U.K. engineering conglomerate chairman Andrew Cook has responded to expensive business travel delays by acquiring a Super King Air to ensure his executives can serve customers cost-effectively and on time in 2007.

Cook, chairman and owner of William Cook Holdings, says: "I have been dabbling with the idea of a company aircraft for years but it became a priority as our executives were forced to spend one or even two nights in hotels carrying out what had previously been accomplished in a day trip."

He adds: "It has been one of my wisest purchases. Bank managers do not tend to think positively over

the buying of aircraft but fortunately I wasn't dependent on them. I haven't used it at all myself, it is more used by my executives to save time and money."

The Super King Air will be used to transport executives "from A to B to attend business and site meetings mainly in Europe," Cook says. "Many of our customers are in fairly out-of-the-way places. These locations are proving much more difficult to get out to and back in a day. It used to be far more feasible to get to Geneva airport, see a customer nearby in France and do a day's work with a 7a.m. start and 8p.m. return. But life is now far more difficult for the businessman. Increased security measures are making it necessary to turn up for check-in two hours before departure time instead of 30 minutes prior to leaving and airports are having to cater to low cost airlines."

The Super King Air faces a busy schedule. It will provide transport for executives of subsidiaries that include William Cook Cast Products, Sheffield; William Cook Rail of Leeds; William Cook NDT and William Cook Master Patterns of Sheffield. In addition it will serve two property companies and be available for charter.

William Cook, a large UK-based engineering company built up almost from scratch, started as a steel casting manufacturer and steel castings still form the basis of 99 per cent of its products. The bulk of

these are sophisticated components, assemblies and systems for a huge range of applications. William Cook prefers to design and manufacture its products in-house and this adds to the importance of good customer liaison.

Cook says: "We are based in the north of England and we are dependent on Manchester airport. There was a time when there were very few major destinations that we couldn't get convenient flights to; Lyon, Geneva, Vienna, Zurich, airports in Germany. That is no longer the case."

Cook, who says he prefers turbos to jets, wanted a twin engine solution with good operational and maintenance that could easily meet the regulations for third party charter.

He says: "I might have chosen a Conquest II if they were still around in quantity but they are not. I also ruled out the single engine Pilatus. The Super King Air proved itself early on with a flight to the north of Sweden that ordinarily would have meant two nights away. Not only did it reduce the time to one night away but the pilot was able to advance the schedule by one hour and avoid fog that caused delays. It was also possible to route the aircraft via Dortmund and accomplish another business objective."

Cook says a big advantage is the ability to go directly to the destination. "One client in Holland is 90 minutes from Amsterdam and a private aircraft can save at least three hours of executive time."

Third party charter takes priority: the executives have to fit their schedule around paying customers.

The Super King Air, which has only been operated for owner use, will be chartered on the AOC of Eastern Air Executive based at Sturgate. Hugh Stark, md, says it will be flown by chief pilot John Duke.