Photograph: Bell 430 Helicentre Expands Into Coventry U.K. helicopter operator Helicentre has started operations from Coventry Airport in the West Midlands. The company gained some television exposure in 2000 when it flew in medical specialists and rail engineers to the scenes of the Shelby and Hatfield railroad disasters. Helicentre now is looking for a site near London, where it can provide ``rapid response charters'' for corporate customers in central London.

Blue Fox Executive Airlines is due to start a scheduled one-class ``business first'' service from the United Kingdom to New York JFK in March 2002. Operating twice-daily service out of its own terminal at London Stansted Airport, the airline is to fly three Boeing 767-300ERs with just 138 ``guests'' (as they are to be known) aboard an aircraft, which can accommodate a maximum of 298 seats.

SkyAir TimeJet, a fractional leasing program operating five Pilatus PC-12s, is up and running in Switzerland. The company claims 14 customers and plans to take delivery of another pair of the single-engine turboprops in 2002 to meet expected demand.The man behind SkyAir TimeJet is Juerg Fleischmann, who is also founder and CEO of Lions Air, a charter outfit based in Zurich. He said the new fractional ``is designed for small and medium-size companies that wish to avoid busy international airports and make use of over 2,000 airfields across Europe.''