Dexter airline intends to lease 10 pre-owned Pilatus PC-12 aircraft in 2012, Izvestiya reports.

If the deal is implemented, the airline’s fleet would increase to 18 aircraft of the type (the airline’s owners believe that it would make the project profitable). The carrier’s partners – Industrial Investors Group (owned by Sergey Generalov) and Kaskol Group (chaired by Sergey Nedoroslev) have invested $60 million in its development during last seven years.

«We have already submitted an application to the Federal Air Transport Agency in the network of governmental program for partial subsidization of aircraft’s cost. Simultaneously we are negotiating with Russian financial institutions on extension of credit facility for us. If everything shapes well then we would acquire 10 additional aircraft this year», — the project manager, Evgeny Andrachnikov (Dexter) told Izvestiya.

At present the airline has eight Swiss Pilatus PC-12 turboprop aircraft in its fleet. The aircraft is intended for 8 passengers, has a maximum speed of 519 km/h and a range of 2000 km. Dexter is considering the possibility of leasing the aircraft made in 2008. Such turboprop costs about $3–3,5 million.

We remind you that according to the Governmental Decree №1212 from December 30th 2011, the state will subsidize 20.45 million rubles to the carrier for acquisition of each aircraft not older than 4 years intended for 4-10 passengers. Thus Dexter will receive about 20% of the aircraft’s cost. However, the funds are allocated only if the carrier would operate these aircraft on domestic and regional routes during 5 years.

Federal Air Transport Agency confirmed that Dexter has submitted the application for subsidization within the framework of acquisition of 16 Pilatus PC-12s, at that, the agency has already agreed to subsidize the acquisition of six liners. The application for another 10 ones is being considered. Besides Dexter only two more carriers have submitted their applications to the Federal Air Transport Agency — RusLine and Ak Bars Aero — for a total of seven Bombardier aircraft.

The owner of Kaskol, Sergey Nedoroslev, said that the total amount of his group’s investments in Dexter is over $20 million. Another $40 million have been invested by Industrial Investors. The ownership interests of the partners in this project have already been changed several times. At present Kaskol has 33% of this carrier.

According to Evgeny Andrachnikov, the company’s business may become profitable after the expansion of its fleet to 15 aircraft. The time needed for reaching the break-even point will only depend on the rates of carrier’s fleet growth.