By Emmie V. Abadilla PhilJets expects to post over 100% growth and continue expanding its business in 2018, its fifth year of operations in the country. The Manila-based airline, which is part of the Starline Global Industries Group, plans to launch new projects, venture into new partnerships and expand in the Education, Logistics and Tourism sectors, opening bases in the provinces. PhilJets offers general aviation services, charter flights, helicopter tours and aerial work, aircraft management, aircraft sales, spare parts sales, maintenance services, technical support, ground handling, manpower and distribution. The PhilJets Group includes PhilJets Aero Services, Inc. and PhilJets Aero Charter Corporation, and provides business aviation services in domestic market as well as within the Asia Pacific region. This year, PhilJets will add more aircraft to its fleet to cater to its growing customers base, both local and international. In 2017, the company entered the business jet segment adding 1 Cessna Citation XLS+ to its fleet plus one more additional Cessna Citation Business Jet. Definitely, it’s eyeing a share of the region’s business aviation market. Hence, it  is upgrading its Civil Aviation Authority license from non-scheduled domestic to non-scheduled international – a must for airlines entering the Jet market. “It is very challenging to manage growth for a startup in aviation,” says Chairman Thierry Tea. “We are looking at innovating opportunities and the best way to develop them while always keeping safety and customer service as our core priorities.” Already, PhilJets surpassed its target sales revenues of R160 million, reaching close to R200 million of sales, though its costs also rose significantly due to training recurrencies, increases in overhead maintenance and operations costs. The airline boosted its fleet, from 6 aircraft  in 2016 to 11 aircraft by end of last year. Its assets value correspondingly rose to more than R3.8 billion (US$ 77 million), almost four times increase from previous year. The latest addition to PhilJets’ fleet include 2 helicopters (1 Bell 407 GX and 1 Airbus H145) and 3 fixed wing aircraft (1 Bombardier Challenger 350, 2 Cessna Citation XLS+). Within this year, PhilJets will be adding 4 to 5 more aircraft to its fleet, jacking up its asset value to more than R4.5 billion (US$ 90 million) and increasing its capacity to serve customers in the different segments of the market. “We need both lighter single engine and lighter twin-engine helicopter in our fleet, as well as a good twin-engine turboprop fixed wing. These are our main objectives for this year,” explained Choy Elciario, in charge of the Charter activities of PhilJets. “Customers also frequently require some aircraft types or brands that we do not yet have and we are working on addressing these requests,” added Geoffroy Cahen, Head of Sales & Marketing. While 5 new pilots, each having an average of 25 years experience, added to its workforce last year, the aviation startup now employs over 60 people.