Jota Aviation reports a successful six months in the jet set.

Tuesday 14th April 2015

Jota Aviation, the UK charter company based at London Southend Airport, reports a good introduction to service with its first BAE 146-200 jet aircraft.  Since it joined the fleet in October last year activity has included an ACMI support contract performing up to eight daily flights out of London City Airport for one of the UK's leading scheduled carriers to various UK and European destinations.  This week it makes its first visit to TAG Farnborough Airport for a private charter to Marrakech. In addition ad hoc charters have been performed for Sports Teams, Film Crews and Corporate Incentive trips. The company is already looking at expanding the fleet with further additions.

Commercial activity has been supplemented by a considerable amount of north sea oil support work, said Mike Sessions, Commercial Manager, noting the aircraft has achieved a highly satisfactory 100% technical dispatch reliability.

He and Jota Aviation's Managing Director Andy Green are in Rome this week attending the European Regions Airline Association's Spring meeting (15th-16th April) to promote the latest fleet addition. They see good opportunities for ACMI work as many scheduled airlines flying predominately business routes require cover for unscheduled maintenance and crew shortages during the busy summer months. The airline is also able to offer a club configuration by converting the centre seat of each treble to a table to allow more comfortable seating and a moveable cabin divider to offer a separate business class if required.

50-plus seat version of BAE 146 next

The next step for Jota is to offer the market an alternative 50-plus seat full executive cabin layout in 2/2 seating to accommodate the requirements of niche operators and charter brokers with the layout ideal for incentive events, car launches, sports and music tours.  It has purchased new comfortable business class seats, trimmed in sumptuous leather and will accept them from the vendor within the next two weeks.  Jota will offer first class catering and china/glass service. They expect to be able to multi role the layout from its current newly refurbished 95-seat cabin configuration to 54/56 seats within 12 hours.  "There are few players in Europe who can offer 50-executive seat plus availability with such a generous cabin size and serve all manner of runway restricted airports as the 146 can do, so we anticipate this will be an interesting niche for us," adds Mike.

Jota is new member of ERA

Jota Aviation joined ERA in February this year, lauding the Association as a valuable platform to help it further its relations with Europe's regional airline fraternity.  Importantly too it benefits from being represented by an established and effective voice with Europe's regulatory bodies.

Jota Aviation's BAe 146, which is maintained at Cranfield Airport by Avalon Aviation, complements a fleet of four Beechcraft King Air turboprops.  Jota is the largest operator of the smaller King Air 90 family in Europe, one of which is a dedicated cargo aircraft with a large double cargo door, able to carry in excess of 1,000 kgs. The company also operates the larger King Air 200 that can carry eight passengers.

Aircraft deployed on cargo and passenger flights from London Southend Airport and are available for crew movements and urgent AOG spares.

About Jota Aviation

Jota Aviation is part of the independent Jota Group, which also comprises Jota Sport, Jota Design and Jota Historic.  Set up four years ago to cater for the travel and cargo demands of the motorsports industry, Jota Aviation has grown to be a leading specialist air charter operator serving the UK and Europe with passenger and cargo flights focused on Beechcraft King Airs, today employing 35 personnel.  The company is run by Andy Green, Managing Director and CAA post holder, who set up the company for the directors of Jota Sport in 2009.  Jota Aviation was granted a type B operating licence in September 2010, initially flying light piston aircraft and then progressing to Beechcraft King Airs.  Andy has 25 years' experience in airline and charter operations, starting his career with National Airways in 1986.   He has worked in operations with British Air Ferries and was MD and accountable Manager for Trans Euro Air, flying King Airs. Andy has also worked with Air Charter Service (ACS), one of the world's top three charter brokers.

Jota Sport The racing division of the JOTA Group currently competes in the European Le Mans Series plus selected rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship including the Le Mans 24 Hours - a race JOTA Sport first contested in 2005 and has claimed a top-six overall placing in. Including runners up in the European Le Mans series and winning the coveted Le Mans 24 hour race in LMP2 in 2014. Jota Sport has also competed successfully in the American Le Mans Series, British GT Championship, Le Mans Series, Le Mans Endurance Series and FIA Sportscar Championship since its formation in 2000 as well as the Spa and Nürburgring 24 Hour races.

Jota Historic focuses on restoring and running historic race cars at Blue-Ribbon events such as the Le Mans Classic and Goodwood. Built on a foundation of supreme attention to detail, dedication and expertise, Jota Historic offers a turnkey operation from restoration, race car setup, race weekend support and performance driver coaching.

Jota Design specialises in the design, development and manufacture of road, race and rally projects. The knowledge and experience gained through motorsport competition is directly translated into all the projects that Jota Design is tasked with, from major OEM projects for the likes of Mazda through to individual vehicle performance enhancement.

The Jota Group is majority owned by British businessman and entrepreneur Simon Dolan, who is involved in several financial industries.  A Le Mans racing driver he set up racing team Jota Sport in 2008.


www.jotaaviation.com