The fortunes of Air Partner, the Gatwick-based charter specialist, continued to soar yesterday after interim profits more than doubled.

The firm, which hires out aircraft to businesses, governments, royalty and celebrities, hailed a renaissance in the charter flight market.

Pre-tax profits were £1.2 million in the six months to January 31, compared with £500,000 last year, while sales lifted by eight per cent to £43.6 million.

Air Partner said the rise was largely due to growth in margins and tighter cost controls.

However, chief executive David Savile said tightened security arrangements on scheduled flights had also played a role in attracting customers.

He said: "With the massive step-up in security arrangements at airports, there is nothing scheduled carriers can do to alleviate customers' suffering.

"They can provide them with comfy armchairs to sit in while they wait but business people don't go to airports to sit in armchairs - they want to get moving."

At £9,000 per hour in the air, Air Partners is in a different world to the chartered flights of package holidays to Benidorm and Lanzarote.

Contracts include more than 1,000 royal and presidential flights and the company has arranged journeys for world leaders and dignitaries from 33 countries.

Mr Savile said: "Ten years ago charter was considered a dirty word, the bucket-and-spade option for holidays to Tenerife."

But Air Partner, he said, was gaining where scheduled carriers could not, by giving customers quick turnaround times to major European destinations.

Last year the group overcame a difficult first half - hit by uncertainty over the invasion of Iraq and the Sars epidemic - to report its 20th successive year of sales growth.

Air Partner became the first aviation company to be granted a royal warrant from the Queen last December, entitling it to display the royal arms together with the words "By Appointment".

The company, which has about 115 staff working in ten countries, also flew the Real Madrid football team on its pre-season tour of Asia last year and has taken aid workers to disaster-hit regions. Chairman Tony Mack said Air Partner was seeing signs of improvement in areas of its market.

He said: "Although our industry is still trading in difficult times, we are pleased with the financial results for the period under review and are cautiously optimistic for the future." On a like-for-like basis trading was at similar levels to last year and in line with market expectations.

The UK, which is Air Partner's most established market and accounts for 55 per cent of group sales, posted a good margin performance.

Contracts with car companies and firms in the pharmaceutical sector were among the areas of growth.

Thursday April 15, 2004