The Private Jet Company is building a sizeable managed fleet and putting the finishing touches to the design of a new FBO on the Isle of Man.

Tony Corlett, MD, says: "Our rapid growth means that we have outgrown our current business and hangarage premises and therefore we are planning to build a new state of the art private aviation facility. This will provide our clients with a first-class facility that is currently not available on the Isle of Man."

The Private Jet Company, formed to accommodate customer requests for turnkey aircraft management, has several new aircraft on order for clients which will be managed for the clients by the company.

Corlett says: "We delivered a new CJ3 for a European client in April and recently acquired a Citation 560 XLS for a local client. In addition we are taking delivery of a Citation Sovereign in February 2009, and we are also purchasing a Challenger 300 for a European client. We will also be managing that Challenger 300 remotely for our European client."

The company anticipates operating a fleet of up to seven managed aircraft within two years. On average the aircraft fly approximately 400 hours per year, with each client using approximately 200 hours per year. Owners, Corlett says, use their aircraft for both business and pleasure.

Driving factors in the choice of aircraft include a comfortable cabin, a good range and high performance. "We now have trained engineers based on the island so maintenance is not such an issue," Corlett adds. "We intend to increase the quality of our ground based services for handling our clientele and are currently finalising plans for a new private aviation facility that will commence development later this year. The company is organised so that they just tell our operations what time they would like to depart and to where, everything else is looked after under our management agreement."

There will be job vacancies available from early next year to accommodate the increase in managed aircraft, including an XLS pilot and Sovereign pilot, both based in the Isle of Man and a Challenger 300 pilot based in Europe.

Capt. Corlett has British, American and European Airline transport licences and also holds Bermudian and Isle of Man certificates of validation. But he was born on the Isle of Man and was active in helping form the Isle of Man register. "There are now over 70 aircraft on the M-registration. Overall it has been a huge success, and it will continue to grow."

When the register's doors opened for business on 1 May 2007, the Private Jet Company registered two jets and Corlett completed the first flight in a Manx registered aircraft. The company's core business includes aircraft sales and purchase, worldwide aircraft delivery and ferry flights, de-registration and registration, aircraft management, operations and crewing, hangarage, aircraft handling, technical documentation and maintenance. The Isle of Man airport has separate plans for an executive jet facility (EBAN October 2007).