Jota Aviation are pleased to announce the release of their third BAe-146-300QT Freighter aircraft into service last week. Up until recently the aircraft, tail G-JOTD, has been in long term storage at Jota Aviation’s London Southend base since it was acquired in April 2018. With the recent uptake in demand from cargo flights as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision to release G-JOTD into operation has been essential in servicing a market with a lack of available cargo aircraft. The aircraft has undertaken extensive maintenance at Jota’s Part 145 approved facility prior to it being officially released into operations ready for its first shipment of automotive parts bound for Vigo in Spain.

Over the past few months, Jota have been heavily involved in the logistics and air transportation of the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), high value cargo and postal services. In addition to this, Jota have been continuously flying throughout the lockdown repatriating hundreds of passengers who have been stranded abroad where scheduled services are no longer operating.

Andy Green, CEO for Jota Aviation said “The past few months have had a devastating effect on the airline industry and our cargo operation has been a lifeline for us. Looking beyond the immediate CV-19 period, we anticipate a further uptake on our cargo charters, as the world slowly recovers from the economic shock of the lockdown. Our engineering team has done a great job in getting this aircraft out of long-term storage and back into service. Flexibility and a positive attitude across the company has allowed us to redeploy into different markets in order to survive and it is a happy consequence of this that our cargo market has grown which has helped mitigate the downturn on the passenger charter business during these challenging times.

The restart of the Premier League also means Jota will resume the rest of the seasons flying schedule for the top teams’ domestic games giving a huge kickstart to the summer seasons flying programme which has been hugely impacted as a result of COVID-19.