In addition to the charter work and maintenance centre, Harmony is now making use of its ‘Harmony Training Center’, which includes an ATO. The company has enjoyed a very busy summer on its fleet of Falcons.
Harmony Jets added two further aircraft to its fleet this summer: one Falcon 900 and one Falcon 100 with an avionics retrofit.
“The Falcon 100 is the fastest light jet ever produced, but also one of the most modern and innovative built by Dassault,” the company says. “It can carry eight passengers, with a configuration of three fully articulating seats with three-place divan, forward two-place side-facing seats.”
Harmony received the Falcon 900B from UK in mid-July. For the time being, the aircraft is still operating commercial flights under the AOC of Voluxis. It should be ready to join Harmony Jets’ fleet to operate under its Maltese registration by mid-October. With a range of 8,200 km, a spacious cabin, and three jet engines, the Falcon 900 is ideal for long-haul flights and can welcome up to 15 passengers in the highest standards.
Communications manager Julie Paignon says: “We recently operated medical evacuations to and from Europe, Libya, Thailand, Algeria, Republic of the Congo, Taiwan, Yemen and Syria. Within the past months, we also extended our operations to Asia and the UAE. As every summer, and even more since the COVID-19 crisis, August and September have been busy for our teams, with each aircraft flying more than 100 hours. At the beginning of October, we reached 4,000 hours of flight within the 12 past months. It represents an increase of 70 per cent of our activity. Medical operations represent 30 per cent of our global activity. Thus, the main part of our missions is divided between corporate, States departments and leisure flights.”
At the beginning of July, the operator delivered a Falcon 50 to a workshop in Dinard, Britany to operate a complete stripping before the heavy check. The aircraft returned to its Lyon-based workshop, and technicians have come to the end of the inspections and the phase of correcting the additional points is about to finish. Harmony Aircraft Services provided fine workmanship. Six to seven technicians are working on the aircraft every day. “The rest of the team continues ensuring the line maintenance of our Fa100 and Fa900 fleet and external client’s aircrafts,” adds Paignon. “Before the end of the year, the technicians will also operate an engine exchange on two Falcon 100 and another heavy maintenance will start on a Fa100. To handle this important workload, new technicians have been hired to work at Harmony Aircraft Services Lyon (France) base for the given period.”
In addition to the charter work and maintenance center, Harmony is now working on the launch of its ‘Harmony Training Center’. For the time being, it is composed by the ATO (Approved Training Organisation), which will allow it to internally train pilots, first on Fa100, and then on FA50 and Fa900. “Thanks to the ATO we will be able to train our own TRI (Type Rating Instructors), composed only with current Harmony members. The launch of this new branch marks the beginning of total independence for Harmony, which will no longer need external support. This one-year project plan should be approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in October,” Paignon explains. “In the long run, HTC could also host an MTO (Maintenance Training Organisation) and an FSTD Operator (Flight Simulator Training Devices Operator).”