Av8jet Charter will increase the number of aircraft on its Maltese AOC when a new Cessna Aircraft Company Citation joins the fleet over the coming weeks, Director John Norris said in an exclusive interview with ch-aviation, adding that he expects the business aviation operator’s fleet to continue to grow in 2025.

“We are close to introducing the sixth aircraft to our AOC, a third Citation,” he stated.

The aircraft that will be coming in is a Citation Jet 4, formerly registered in Germany as D-CHRA (msn 525C-0058). It was last managed by E-Aviation while it was first delivered to Hahnair (HR, Düsseldorf) in 2011, ch-aviation data shows. The aircraft will be registered in Malta as 9H-MVP, Norris confirmed. The remainder of Av8jet Charter’s Malta AOC fleet comprises one Global 6500, one Global Express, one Falcon 2000, and two Citations. UK sister company Av8jet also privately manages two Challenger 601s registered in Guernsey and the Isle of Man, respectively.

Although Av8jet Charter expects to grow its fleet, the bulk of its revenue comes from aircraft transactions, where the company started in 2005. Its business entails a combination of charter and management in Malta and aircraft and software sales out of the United Kingdom.

As Norris explained, due to aircraft sales pricing, that part of the business contributes the most to revenue in terms of quantum. However, in terms of profitability, the management side of the business is stronger, he added.

“We're not a company that says: you bring your aircraft to us or manage it for you. That's not our model,” Norris stated. “Our model is asking what do you have? What would you need?”

According to the director, many high net-worth individuals who own aircraft already have someone that they rely on, either a pilot, their accountant, or their lawyer, and they want these individuals involved. “For example, if it’s a pilot and he wants to crew the aircraft himself, then we're happy to work around that.”

Av8jet’s software business

“The software business is there to help drive the rest of the business. We're an aviation company that's quite good at it, rather than an IT company dabbling in aviation,” Norris added.

The software product Av8jet sells is a comprehensive platform called AV8SMS. On the one hand, it acts as a back-office operator with a focus on safety management – it provides flight risk assessments, has an Operational Control Center for flight planning, includes financial details, and a crew app. On the other, it is a learning management system, which provides different modules based on a user’s job.

“It’s mostly private clients with two or three jets that use our software product and we do have one small airline as a client,” Norris stated, adding that the software component of the business is something he considers a unique selling point.

Fleet over trends

Due to the size of its fleet, Av8jet Charter is more impacted by new aircraft entering its operations than by market trends, Norris noted.

He also added that 2022 was an excellent year for the entire charter market whereas 2023 was “steady”.

“I would say this year is perhaps slightly better, but probably less than 10% better,” Norris noted.

The director went on to say that Av8jet Charter’s flights are mostly driven by business travel and that quite a few of its aircraft are thus based in or around London. Flights to the Mediterranean, France, and Switzerland are common,” he said, adding that Av8jet Charter also recently operated flights to India and Dubai.

Covid can’t be to blame forever

Commenting on supply chain issues in the industry, Norris stated that they affect everybody and added that the industry needs to respond to them soon.

“As an industry, we need to wake up and try and solve this problem, because we can't keep blaming Covid forever. I guess we've got to try and move on from it,” he stated.

Norris sees poor service as an important factor in some owners’ decisions to sell their aircraft and he added that logistics play a particularly important part in service.

“Getting parts to or from Europe or from USA in and out of the UK, specifically because of Brexit is a problem. Parts delays are our real nightmare,” he stressed, adding that Brexit complicated business for UK operators on multiple fronts: import, taxation, legislation, as well as VAT interactions in and out of Europe.

Not being a part of the free market in Europe was a “pivotal moment” and a “great shame”, according to Norris.

Av8jet Charter started its charter operations in 2021 and opted for an AOC in Malta primarily because of Brexit.