Independently owned specialist UK air charter and management company, Jota Aviation has marked its fourth birthday by expanding into the Charter and ACMI jet charter market with the introduction of a British Aerospace BAe 146-200 regional jet. The aircraft was delivered to the company’s London Southend base on August 29, 2014 but didn’t enter formal service on October 10, 2014 after Jota Aviation was formally awarded an ‘A licence’ operating certificate by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

Jota Aviation is now offering the aircraft, which features a refurbished interior with 95 leather seats to scheduled airlines, inclusive tour companies and corporates as well as air charter brokers looking for newly available capacity for music and sports group work, conference and incentive flights and other ad hoc activity. Jota Aviation already has a close association with motorsports through its long established Jota Sport division which won the Le Mans 24 hour race this year in the LMP2 class.

Jota Aviation’s commercial manager, Mike Sessions, confirmed to The HUB this week that he is already seeing a lot of interest for the aircraft and expects the aircraft’s 1,400 nautical mile range and rugged, short field operating characteristics will make it ideal for popular European leisure and business destinations both through private charters and supporting airline AOGs.

“We already have a lot of interest. In fact we have already signed a couple of contracts for this month for the aircraft which will see it fly to Shannon and begin a nine-day charter. We are also already concluding forward bookings for 2015 for the aircraft,” he said.

In readiness for its revenue service some 15 flight and cabin crew, plus several administration personnel have been recruited and crews this week have begun specialised training on the simulator at the CAE Manchester training centre on the former BAE Systems site at Woodford, Cheshire. for the tricky approaches to the likes of Innsbruck, Sion and Chambery, which require additional pilot certification.

The excellent performance of the four-engine BAe 146 and its successor the Avro RJ made it popular for operations to short-field runways and Sessions believes the aircraft could still have a role to play at London City Airport, a location where many aircraft are not permitted to fly due to the steep approach pattern over the Docklands area.

“We can see the aircraft acting as an option for ad hoc requirements from London City and we have already approached airlines serving the airport offering AOG support. We are nearly there with certification of the aircraft and simply need to actually fly it into the airport a couple of times to complete the process,” said Sessions. “We already have interest from one airline which plans to open an audit process on Jota for future use.”

Although Jota Aviation plans to initially establish its jet operations with the single BAe 146-200 it is already looking to the future and could even add a second aircraft before the end of 2014, although more likely in summer 2015, with a third example also an option for next year. According to Sessions, who has more than 35 years experience in the aviation business with British Air Ferries, British World Airlines and more recently running his own consultancy Blue Sky Aviation, these are more likely to be newer Avro RJ85s which share significant commonality with the similarly sized BAe 146-200.

The BAe 146, joins Jota Aviation’s growing charter fleet of Beechcraft King Airs, with a fourth example - an eight passenger B200 twin turboprop – joining the fleet recently. Jota is currently the largest operator of the smaller King Air 90 family in Europe, with aircraft deployed on cargo and passenger flights from London Southend, Liverpool and Leeds Bradford Airports.