For those in the U.S. who fail to appreciate fully how the rest of the world has suffered from the effects of 9/11, consider this: since that infamous day no fewer than 18 air transport operators have disappeared in France alone. So how can a small airline born during this volatile period survive? Twin Jet, based in Aix-en-Provence, France, thinks it has found the answer. Led by a management team committed to a steady, conservative approach to business, the airline now flies a fleet of nine Beech 1900Ds and exhibits a maturity beyond its years.
“We have been profitable since the beginning,” Olivier Manaut, Twin Jet’s CEO, said during a September press conference in Lyons. The airline expects to turn a profit of between €500,000 ($615,000) and €1 million ($1.2 million) this year on revenues of €15 million ($18.4 million), a remarkable performance considering the wretched state of France’s entire domestic airline industry following 9/11.
