Press Release

Issued by DragonFly Aviation Services.

November 26, 2014

DragonFly Executive Air Charter, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, has announced its acquisition of another Beechcraft King Air B200 to add to its existing fleet of a Super 200 and a B200.

The new aircraft has an interesting history, being one of a batch of B200s acquired for the RAF in 2003 and principally used for multi-engine, multi-crew training. The aircraft has now been de-commissioned, and converted to a vip passenger configuration.

DragonFly chief executive, Howard Palser, said: "I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to acquire this aircraft. Obviously, it has an impeccable history and a full technical spec including TCAS and EGPWS. It also had an anti-skid braking system to simulate what pilots in training would encounter on larger aircraft, but as this system is not certified for civilian use it has been removed in preparing the aircraft for its civilian role. This process has involved the installation of seating, cabinetry and bulkheads that were not required in the aircraft's military configuration and have been stored since new.

"On delivery, the aircraft had been repainted overall in Matterhorn white, and has now been finished in DragonFly's colours to match her two sister aircraft. The detailing was carried out by Pete Medley who is a true craftsman, and has done a superb job. At the moment the aircraft is with our engineers, Iscavia Limited, at Exeter who are supervising the refurbishment of the interior. We anticipate that the aircraft will be on-line in mid-December. Our intention is that in the New Year the aircraft will be based at Blackbushe. Quite a large proportion of the charter flights we undertake for brokers originates in the London area, and this will enable us to provide an immaculate aircraft at a highly competitive local rate for such charters.”

Howard states that in its 10 years of operation DragonFly had attracted a blue-chip list of clients and the provision of extra capacity was essential to meet current demand.

"DragonFly's existing aircraft, "Mike-Alpha" and "MEGN" are extremely popular with clients and the addition of the third aircraft, registered G-OLIV, will ease pressure, not only through increased availability, but by ensuring that two aircraft should always be available when one of the three is off-line for scheduled maintenance."

DragonFly, who always fly the King Air with two type-rated crew, are recruiting additional full-time and freelance crew in order to maximise availability of all three of its aircraft.

Howard reports that DragonFly's profit over the last 12 months have increased by over 30% and is confident that growth will continue in 2015 with the addition to the fleet, the general feeling of improvement in the economy and increased activity in the charter market.

Howard also confirms that DragonFly had applied to the CAA for its own AOC, after having operated under the umbrella of Executive Aviation Services for the last 10 years. Howard said: " It has been very useful to have had the support of EAS in our formative years, and I am most grateful to Peter Turner and his team, but everyone realises that there comes a time when you come of age and stand on your own two feet, and this for us is the optimum time to take this step. DragonFly is committed to growth and to build on the reputation we have achieved in the King Air market. We are being guided through the AOC application process by specialised consultants, Total AOC and are working closely with the CAA who have been extremely helpful to us during what is a lengthy and complex procedure. We have a tremendous team of operations staff and flight-crew who work extremely hard and are committed to maintaining the highest professional standards.”