Hi I’m Duncan Van De Velde. I’m the Vice President of Sales, Textron Aviation Europe. I’m here today with Ward Bonduel, Managing Director of Luxaviation Belgium.
Duncan: So Ward, how was the last year been since the most recent delivery of the CJ4?
Ward: Since the last delivery it was a very productive year for us. Every time that a new aircraft is added, of course this creates an enthusiasm amongst our charter clients because they are happy to fly a new aircraft and also the owners of the aircraft, they are also happy to see their own jet arriving and being able to use it. So, SkyClub for us took a new boost because when we started integrating Citation CJ4 Gen 2 in our fleet, for us it was a perfect match to reply to the needs of our clients. It has the range, the performance and the capacity of the passengers on board, and it also can be operated at good operational costs. So that’s really the perfect mix of all the aspects that people are looking for, especially for when they want to fly within Europe. Today, we have three Citation CJ4 Gen 2’s operating within the SkyClub program and we are working on integrating more of those into our fleet. And the success of SkyClub in Belgium makes that we also believe that it can be expanded in Europe and that’s why we will be launching it as well in France, UK, Germany, Luxembourg, our neighboring countries.
Duncan: The support network, at Textron Aviation, we have quite some service centres across Europe. How is the network helping you and the program?
Ward: For us it’s very grateful to work with the service centres because being centrally localized in Europe and having several service centers around us, we have one in Düsseldorf, we have one in France. They are always close by. So for us, the support is close by. So, it really has an added value, not only in the service and the support, but also when it comes to the spare part availability with the warehouse being in Düsseldorf, it helps us because we can then easily get parts from that warehouse onto wherever we are in Europe.
Duncan: And the CJ4, again, that is a successful program. Are you considering adding other models to the program?
Ward: We are considering, first of all, to bring the CJ4 to other regionals in Europe, as well. So we are looking to the neighboring countries. We are also looking at the the M2 Gen 2 and for the clients who would want a larger cabin, we will launch the Latitude.
Duncan: Why have you decided to work with Textron Aviation?
Ward: Like recently, together with Textron Aviation, we managed to get our La Mole approval again for the CJ4 Gen 2. Our relationship with Textron Aviation, it doesn’t go back in years, it goes back in decades. So it’s a long standing relationship that always has been a good evolution when it comes to the launch of new aircraft types and this keeps our clients interested in the product.