Heron Aviation of Germany has taken on a Gulfstream G-V for a private client in the Far East. The aircraft will be unavailable for charter. Accountable manager Martin Helbling comments: “The customers approached us last summer to help them with the operation.

They had been happy with the service we had provided previously; we sent people out to them to help get their aircraft out of an AOG situation. “They had also used us for charter flights a couple of times in Europe, so this is a development of a relationship that was already there. It is the first time we have entered the Far East market, and we are not really looking to establish ourselves in that region. Until last summer it was not on our radar at all. But when the client approached us we realised that all of the operational aspects could be carried out from our base in Germany. That made it quite easy to convince us we could do the job. It almost happened by accident.”

He is hoping for more hours on the existing fleet this year, which consists of two Falcon 900EX and a Learjet 60: “We did well last year so we are not complaining at all. We are trying to acquire more management aircraft of course, like everybody is.”