BJETS places $330 bln order for Hawker jets

New Delhi, May 21 (UNI) BJETS, a charter company based in India and South east Asia, today said it has placed a 330 million dollar order with Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) for 10 Hawker 4000 business jets with options for an additional five.

This new order is in addition to 40 jets worth over 600 million dollars ordered by BJETS in February this year.

''With Asian economies expanding at a phenomenal pace, there is a growing demand for safe, efficient and reliable private jet travel that BJETS will serve. We have placed a new order for 10 Hawker 4000 business jets following the initial response from the Indian and Southeast Asian market,'' BJETS Chief Executive Officer Mark Baier said.

BJETS, which provides innovative business aviation services to corporations and high net-worth individuals in Asia, has also taken delivery of its first Hawker 850XP from HBC at the company's delivery centre in Little Rock, Arkansas, the US.

The firm had earlier placed an order for 20 Cessna Citation CJ2+ jets, 9 Hawker 850XP and 11 Hawker 900XP jets. Deliveries will be over a period of five years beginning in the second quarter of 2008.

The first 15 new jets will be delivered by 2008-end setting a record-breaking milestone for BJETS.

BJETS was founded by entrepreneur Bala Ramamoorthy, Managing Director of the Briley Group and has the Indian Hotel Company, a part of the Tata Group, as a significant investor.

The company is based in Mumbai, and Singapore, with a flight operations center in Hyderabad and a key focus on the Indian&South East Asian market.

BJETS will have the biggest fleet of private jets in Asia in its very first year of operations.

UNI SBA SR RN1927