Denmark's Copenhagen AirTaxi (CAT) says that the market has reacted positively to the EASA SET ruling last year, and it is seeing continued interest in its fleet of four PC-12s.
“Our fleet has grown since we got the approval for single engine turbine operations last year in May,” says flight ops director Jimmy Arly Larsen. “We fly charter flights and taxi flights for third party customers and we fly for the owners too, as we have the aircraft under management. Everything is going well. So far we have only had good experiences flying SET commercially, in terms of operations and customer feedback.”
All four aircraft are based in Roskilde. “The PC-12 is very well-suited to our operation,” Larsen explains. “We can offer a price that is comparable with other small jets. There will probably be more of the type on the way; we have made no firm orders yet, but over the next year we are likely to add more.”
CAT has served destinations in a variety of countries including Germany, France, the UK, Poland and Austria. Larsen says that the PC-12 is performing so well for him that he does not have interest in other types at this time. “The Pilatus prop occupies a nice place in the market compared with other small jets. You have good comfort, and with the routes that we are flying you are only talking about 20 minutes difference compared to Citations or other jets.
“There are a lot of different events coming up in Denmark that we are already booked for, and in other parts of Scandinavia too. We have the Ice Hockey World Championship, that we have a lot of flights for in May, and then we have a community meeting called the People's Meeting set up by the Danish government for which we have booked 17 flights so far.
“We will be working closely with our sales organisation Blackbird Air Charter. It processes the sales for us and we carry out all operations. The arrangement is working very well.”