First Pilatus PC-24 Enters Service

Yesterday was a big day for Swiss airplane maker Pilatus Aircraft as the first business jet in the company’s nearly 80-year history was delivered. The customer, Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based PlaneSense, received the airplane and will put it into service in its fractional share ownership program. PlaneSense is very familiar with Pilatus’ products as the company already operates 36 PC-12 turboprops in its fleet.

“We have greatly admired the quality and state of the art design of Pilatus aircraft, and are proud to have partnered with Pilatus for the last 22 years,” said PlaneSense’s CEO and president George Antoniadis. “This is an exciting day for us, as well as for our clients who are eager to start flying in this fantastic aircraft.”

Antoniadis said many of his PC-12 customers use the airplanes in smaller, unpaved airports.

“The PC-24 is the only jet that will be able to access many of those same airports, which saves clients a significant amount of time over commercial travel and provides tremendous versatility to the PlaneSense program.”

Pilatus Aircraft’s CEO Markus Bucher handed over the keys to Antoniadis. “On behalf of the 2,000 Pilatus employees who successfully designed, built and certified the best business aircraft in our 80-year company history, we are proud to have our long-time customer and partner PlaneSense take delivery of the very first PC-24,” Bucher said.

Antoniadis and Bucher led another PC-24 ceremony in Portsmouth today at the PlaneSense headquarters to celebrate the arrival of the new airplane.