Russian charter operator Dexter Air Taxi has signed a fleet management program with Pratt & Whitney Canada covering eight PT6A-67P engines on its fleet of Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. “The agreement with Dexter represents our first-ever fleet management program with a P&WC engine operator in Russia and underscores its growing popularity worldwide,” said Geoffrey Corbeil, general manager of P&WC Customer Service Centre Europe, a joint venture between P&WC and MTU of Germany. “We are delighted to support Dexter with a plan that helps them effectively manage their engine maintenance expenses, while offering cost guarantee protection.”

Dexter offers point-to-point travel within a 1,000-kilometer radius of the departure point. The company plans to start making flights to Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the North Caucasus region and to other former Soviet republics. It also aims to increase its PC-12 passenger and cargo fleet to 13 of the single turboprop aircraft by the end of this year.

This week marks the 45th anniversary of the PT6 engine family entering service. Its first application was to power Beech’s King Air 90 twin turboprop.