NetJets Europe (Booth N098) flew its first Cessna Citation Latitude to the EBACE static display on Sunday afternoon, as it aims to highlight this new, highly-capable midsize aircraft. “Our key focus at EBACE this year is unveiling the Citation Latitude,” Mark Wilson, president, NetJets Europe, told AIN in an interview last week. “We will be very active over the next few months with sales trips and demo flights,” he added.
AIN flew the $16.25 (list price) Latitude for a pilot report just over a year ago. Its long-range-cruise capability is around 5,186 kilometers (2,800 nautical miles - enough for U.S. coast-to-coast), or around 4,260 km (2,300 nm) with nine passengers. It is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW306 turbofans, has excellent performance off a 3,000-foot (914-meter) runway, and has the latest Garmin G5000 avionics. It also has WiFi in the cabin.
“It’s an impressive aircraft. It’s nice when you see the smile of crew members when they see it for the first time. I think it’s going to do very well for us.” Wilson said that the aircraft follows the Challenger 350, Global 6000 and Phenom 300 as new introductions to the fractional operator’s fleet over the past couple of years as part of a fleet-wide modernization (it has a total of around 500 aircraft, with some 100 now in the European fleet). The company placed a firm order for 25 Latitudes in 2012, along with options for 125, and it took delivery of the first U.S.-based aircraft in January this year.
Wilson said that NetJets Europe saw “a small increase in overall flying last year,” and has experienced a particularly strong uptick over the past six months. “We’re looking at a 5 percent increase year-on-year, which is quite different from the overall [European] market.” He added, “We’ve found that the fractional model has been strengthened during the downturn,” as owners look for more cost-effective ways to get the same experience they had when owning their own aircraft, along with those looking to the fractional model as their first continuous use of business aviation. “People who buy in to private aviation want confidence in who is operating and maintaining the aircraft, and in the service quality,” said Wilson. “Service is incredibly improtant to them, rather than relying on a series of [charter] providers.”
Wilson said that NetJets Europe has “about 1,250 customers in Europe, and the average size of their share is around 75 hours [per year]–it varies a little from fleet-to-fleet.” Customer hours vary from around 50 hours to “several hundred,” he added.
He also told AIN that “no particular segment” or aircraft size was doing better or worse than the others. Each of the aircraft types it has introduced over the past few years has done very well, with “great customer acceptance,” Wilson claimed.
Giving the global perspective to the NetJets business, he said that the company is “going more international–we are seeing larger aircraft become more important, the ability to connect all parts of the globe as quickly as possible, and less just North America to Europe. We’re keen to support that with partnerships around the world.
“We’ve always seen private aviation used correctly as an economic wealth generator, something that tends to lead activity.” He also said, “From NetJets’ point of view, we see standard growth [going forward] rather than the 2002-07 style…so a more robust, slow-style growth.”
He also noted, particlularly in Europe but also elsewhere in the world, the importance of opening up more airfields, with new satellite-based approaches being a key enabler. “We need to increase the overall network, and most local airports are anxious to have safer all-weather approaches.”
