GENEVA, Switzerland, May 16, 2011 — Cessna Aircraft Company, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, is today reporting “great success” for the two Citation aircraft now flying with charter operator Jetalliance East in Russia.
Speaking at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition, Trevor Esling, Cessna’s vice president, International Sales, said: “Jetalliance East launched operations in November 2010, basing a new Citation CJ3 and Citation Sovereign at Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport. The move marked the first commercial operation of Cessna aircraft in Russia. We’re delighted — but not surprised — to report the Citations are proving very popular in the Russian charter market and ideal for the challenging weather conditions. Both aircraft have operated without any problems in the extreme sub-zero temperatures [-40˚C] of western Siberia, for example.
“Jetalliance East has been a great success so far, with monthly charter utilization of around 70-80 hours for each of our aircraft. We’re already discussing adding new Citations to the fleet as soon as possible.”
Igor Chunikhin, chief executive officer of Jetalliance East, added: “We’re extremely happy with the performance of the CJ3 and Sovereign. The dispatch reliability is very high.”
Chunikhin added: “Around 70 percent of our traffic on the aircraft is within Russia, with top destinations including Saint Petersburg, Kazan and Krasnodar, as well as locations important for the mining, basic commodities and energy industries. When flying into western Europe, the most popular destinations for our passengers are Paris and Chambéry in France. About 80 percent of our passengers are flying on business.”
Esling concluded: “The Jetalliance East line maintenance service capability proves useful not only for the company’s CJ3 and Sovereign but also for other Citations operating in Russia.”
Jetalliance East’s CJ3 will be on the static display at EBACE this week. Both the CJ3 and the Sovereign will be on the static display at the Moscow Jet Expo 2011 from Sept. 14-16.
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