Empire Aviation plans to grow

Dubai-based Empire Aviation Group (EAG), the general aviation company which manages private jets, plans to raise it fleet this year, the firm said yesterday.

The company expects the fleet to grow to 15 aircraft by the end of 2009, as the new and pre-owned business jet sales pipeline remains healthy.

EAG recently added a Gulfstream G450 intercontinental business jet to its fleet. The aircraft, owned by a company in the Middle East, will join EAG's mixed fleet of 12 business jets. It can link Dubai with business centres in Europe and the Far East.

"With aviation fuel prices at less than half the peak levels in 2008, and charter prices adjusted accordingly, private aviation continues to hold its own in the region and we are expecting 2009 to be a very strong year for us," Paras Dhamecha, Executive Director, EAG, said in a statement. He added that the G450 is an asset to the company's growing fleet of managed aircraft.

"EAG can help the owner optimise the return on the investment by offering the aircraft to the charter market, which continues to perform well in the Middle East, and offsetting some of the fixed costs of aircraft ownership," he said.

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