After two years of success with four Pilatus PC-12s, start-up Russian air taxi company Dexter predicts that it will be about 2011 before it needs to expand its horizons. So, CEO Eugene Andrachnikov timed his purchase of 20 Cessna Citation Mustangs to fit that growth prediction. “It will take the market about three or four years to mature,” he told AVweb in a podcast interview at EBACE 2008 in Geneva. Andrachnikov claims Dexter is the only “real” air taxi company functioning in the world and that, in part, is due to the economic model. Dexter charges a flat rate of 130 rubles (about $5.50 USD) per kilometer for its PC-12s, regardless of occupancy (maximum of eight passengers) and it does not vary. “Russians don’t like surprises,” he quipped to a laughing media contingent at a Cessna news conference.
Andrachnikov said Dexter exploits the primitive transportation systems in Russia’s resource-rich frontiers and is making the population centers of the hinterlands quickly accessible by the rapidly growing business class. He illustrated the state of Russian transportation by telling the story of a businessman who found it more efficient to fly nine hours to Moscow to take a flight to a city 400 miles from his departure point on the far eastern coast of the country. After another nine hours back to eastern Russia, bad weather forced a diversion to the man’s point of departure. Andrachnikov said the availability of relatively inexpensive point-to-point travel is saving business people days and sometimes weeks. He said most of his customers have never had access to private aircraft travel. About 15 percent have access to private air travel but find Dexter less expensive for short flights.
