Austrian-short haul charter specialist GlobeAir has had a busy year according to its CEO Bernhard Fragner. The company, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, is one of the world’s largest operators of the Citation Mustang, with a fleet of 16 of the light jets, the most recent pair added last summer.

Fragner noted he has seen a 15 percent year-over-year increase in bookings, with an especially good first quarter that rose 23 percent over the corresponding period in 2017. The company expected to conduct approximately 11,000 flights this year and is well on track to exceed that amount. Fragner noted the biggest increases are from France and the UK. "It's not leisure, it's really businessmen traveling... where the growth comes mainly," he said. "A lot of day trips."

In January, the air taxi services provider relocated its maintenance facility at Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport to a larger hangar that can accommodate five of its aircraft at a time. That move has allowed the company to diversify into other services. “Two years ago we started to do our own interiors, we refurbished our aircraft ourselves,” Fragner told AIN. That self-sufficiency and the extra space has led GlobeAir to announce this week at EBACE that it is now offering its approved Mustang refurbishment services as a commercial venture.

“The entire fleet is aging, we saw that on our own aircraft, it got worn and we saw we needed to refurb,” said Fragner. He said the company has received authorization for four designs and can provide customization in terms of seat coverings and embroidered logos. It already has its first customer, a privately-owned Mustang, which it is expected to complete by the end of June.  Fragner explained that most of the work can be done without the customer’s aircraft, and the tear out and installation part will require the aircraft to be out of service for only six days.

With its expertise in maintaining Mustangs gained over the last decade and approximately 100 of the light jets based in Europe, the company has plans to become a maintenance provider. “We see a demand, we see the Mustang community is interested. That’s why we’re setting up everything, our maintenance facility, the proper processes. It's something on the list for next year, definitely,” said Fragner.

As the first operator to sign on with Air BP's Target Neutral voluntary carbon emissions offset program, GlobeAir is exhibiting with the fuel company at EBACE (Booth B29). To further underscore its environmental commitment, the company switched to all paperless cockpits earlier this year.