London Biggin Hill-based Zenith Aviation has secured worldwide AOC approval, and MD Stuart Mulholland says that the certificate is significantly increasing charter revenue and management requests. The company currently operates three Learjet 45s, a Citation XLS and a Challenger 604, with two further aircraft delivered at the start of April: another Learjet and an XLS+.

“We had our ops provided by a third party for several years, but we had a desire to bring it in-house to give us two opportunities,” states Mulholland. “One was to get the worldwide AOC and the second was to increase the quality of the documentation we give to our crews and the support we give to our sales team. We supply so many quotes and we carry out route checks. People are always shouting across to each other in the office asking if we can do eight passengers on the Learjet to wherever it may be, and this gives us the opportunity to respond easily. It has worked out very well.”

Having the worldwide AOC is a great draw for new business, and Zenith has had numerous enquiries to take on aircraft since it was granted. “Without the worldwide AOC we couldn't have attracted this particular Learjet, which does fly worldwide,” Mulholland adds. “We are negotiating on three large cabin aircraft at the moment which all require worldwide cover. If successful, we'll add as many of those as we can to the AOC over the next couple of months.”

The operator's Challenger is based in Almaty and already operates on more international routes than the short range fleet, but it is not available for charter. From now on, when Mulholland looks at aircraft, a prerequisite will be that the aircraft is available for charter.

He also explains that charter flying has enjoyed a sizeable boost so far this year. “Our charter capacity at the end of March 2016 is just short of 300 per cent up on where it was this time last year. It is an amazing amount of activity that we are seeing. If it is a barometer of what is happening in the industry, maybe this is not just a green shoot; maybe this is actually sustainable growth.

“I think the reason it has been so busy for us is due to having the XLS on fleet. That has made a lot of difference to us in the market. Hopefully having a brand new XLS+ available for some 'selective' charter will also be good, and this selectiveness is completely understandable when you are talking about a factory-new aircraft. This owner has never chartered any of his aircraft before so he will be taking a leap of faith.”