Empire Aviation to open branch in Mumbai

The company aims to replicate its success in the Middle East.

City-based private aviation specialist Empire Aviation Group (EAG) has announced plans to expand into India with opening a new branch office in Mumbai by mid-2011.

The company aims to replicate its success in the Middle East,where EAG manages one of the region’s largest managed fleets of business jets and which continues to grow with the addition of Dassault Falcon 7X jets.

The senior management team from EAG will attend EBACE 2011 as the company looks to develop its regional position and accelerate its expansion within and beyond the Middle East.

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EAG’s Mumbai branch — its first operation outside Dubai — will eventually offer the full range of Empire Aviation Group services in the subcontinent,and will have an initial focus on aircraft sales and management.

The expansion into India comes as the Middle East market shows increasing levels of confidence and activity and where EAG has just added two Falcon 7Xs to its managed fleet with a third set to join the growing fleet of more than 20 aircraft,based at Dubai International Airport,the company said in a statement.

The Falcon 7X offers 15-30 per cent greater fuel efficiency than other aircraft in the large cabin,long range class. The range of 5,950 nautical miles means the aircraft can comfortably connect 95 per cent of the commonly used business aviation city pairs worldwide,such as Beijing-Paris,New York-Riyadh,it said.

EIG Executive Director Paras Dhamecha stressed the importance of timing in announcing the move into India: “Business jet registrations in India have risen strongly in recent years and there is an attractive market opportunity especially for our aircraft management services,and good potential for aircraft sales.

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Our home market in the Middle East is also building momentum as confidence and activity levels return. Our clear aim in India is to emulate the success we have achieved in the Middle East,where we have become one of the region’s largest specialists since starting operations in 2007. It’s a very exciting time for our young company”.

“We are confident that our business model will continue to support aircraft owners in achieving their financial and travel objectives and so we are confident about the future prospects for the industry in the region,” Dhamecha said.

“There was also some improvement in aircraft sales. Global aircraft sales — and especially the US market are still depressed but we see this as a temporary situation and the demand from the emerging markets such as India,will continue to develop strongly,” he said.