Jet.Paris gains French AOC for HondaJet operation

Jet.Paris has secured an AOC in France with three HondaJet aircraft.

Jet.Paris has obtained a French air operator certificate (AOC) and will fly a fleet of three HondaJets from Nice to destinations across Europe.

The company, run by Kazakhstan entrepreneur Vitaly Arkhangelskiy, has spent two years acquiring the licence because of the “rather difficult guidelines implemented by the French authorities” he tells Corporate Jet Investor.

The jets, originally owned by aviation charter brokerage Cofrance and operated by European Aero Training Institute Strasbourg (EATIS), have undergone extensive maintenance since Arkhangelskiy took them over.

“It will take a while to train sufficient number of the crew, it takes time to develop relations with fuel providers, airports and so on, so for the newcomer it’s always time consuming,” says Arkhangelskiy, who joined Cofrance in 2012.

His plan is to add “several more single aircraft” to cement Jet.Paris’ position in the very light jet market in Europe.

“The HondaJet, range wise and price wise, is perfectly suited for the one, two, three hours European flights so most probably we will be concentrating on Nice-Paris, Nice-London, Nice-Zurich, Nice-Geneva and Nice to Italian cities,” he says.

Arkhangelskiy, who has lived in France for 20 years, has been a long-time friend and supporter of Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

“He was a client before he became a president,” he says. “We are in different orbits nowadays, fortunately for me and unfortunately for him. He’s a very good person, a very good artist.”