Switzerland-based VistaJet named Dexter Aviation, a Moscow-based Pilatus PC-12 charter operator, as its Russian partner. Under the arrangement, announced last week, VistaJet will lease two of its yet-to-be-delivered Challenger 605s to Dexter, which will base the large-cabin jets at one of Moscow’s airports when they arrive in the third or fourth quarter.

The aircraft will keep their VistaJet registration and livery but will be on Dexter’s air operator certificate, which permits them to be flown with Russian pilots at the controls inside the country “within the framework of legality.” The Challengers will primarily serve VistaJet’s “program customers” flying more than 50 hours per year and will occasionally perform on-demand charter flights.

VistaJet founder and chairman Thomas Flohr said Dexter’s selection is due to “similarity of business model.” For example, both companies own their young fleets of “top-of-the-line products in the given classes” operating under manufacturer warranty. “In the past five to six years VistaJet has become the dominant international provider of business aviation services into Russia, with 2,000 flights per annum,” he continued, adding that “marriage” with Dexter gives “an ideal synergy,” with VistaJet flying intercontinental and inside Eurasia and Dexter adding “the last thousand miles.”