clients, is scheduled to take off in March.

Island Aviation Limited has purchased an IAI Westwind II in the United States and is currently advertising for a captain and first officer.

The company -- which will be the only one of its kind on the Island -- also hopes to offer air ambulance services in September if it obtains approval from the Bermuda Hospitals Board.

And the long-term dream of company directors Mark Byrne, Glen Griffin and Anthony Philip is to establish a scheduled service from Bermuda to the US on routes not used by the major airlines.

The company has hired a crew of two pilots and an operational officer on the ground.

The plane, which can seat six passengers, has a flight range of 2,800 miles, making Denver, Toronto, Chicago, Caracas and the Cayman Islands within reach.

London, at 2,900 miles, is just out of range. But Europe will remain off limits in any case because the plane does not have the necessary navigational equipment needed to reach the continent.

While refusing to disclose how much it will charge corporate customers or the Hospitals Board, Island Aviation said it believed it will be able to offer considerable savings.

Ready for take-off Businesses chartering a jet at present have to pay for it from the moment it leaves the US for Bermuda to the time it touches down again in America. A plane based in Bermuda will cost companies less because it will be flying for shorter periods.

Mr. Byrne, a pilot and businessman with West End Capital, told The Royal Gazette that the company had decided to operate in two stages.

The company was ready to begin executive chartered operations in March, but was still in the process of obtaining medical equipment and approval from the Hospitals Board for air ambulance operations.

Mr. Byrne said air ambulances in the US did not require licences. It was not clear whether a licence would be required for Bermuda or whether Hospitals Board approval would be sufficient.

The airline had acquired a US Federal Aviation Authority Licence, but hoped to obtain a Bermuda Department of Civil Aviation licence next year.

He said: "We are confident there is a demand for executive air travel services in Bermuda and we hope we can meet that demand with reliable transportation and first-class service.

"Our clients will be mainly the exempt companies, banks and law firms, and perhaps wealthy individuals who want to charter our services.

"We have long-term ambitions to create a scheduled airline business based in Bermuda and we will try to seek routes that are not in competition with established airlines flying to the US.'' The last charter air company on the Island, Bermuda Helicopters, stopped its services nearly two years ago.