WKT WHITE KNIGHT Founded 2006 | Website www.dea.aero Fleet size 8 | |
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Company slogan More Capability, More Class, More Carbon: Less CO2 Headquarters Retford Gamston Airport Hubs Retford Gamston Airport, Wick Airport, Padua Airport | ||
Diamond-Executive Aviation Ltd. (DEA) is an aviation company based at Retford Gamston Airport in the United Kingdom.
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It operates a fleet of twin-engined aircraft for corporate air charter flights; aerial surveillance; and Flight Inspection and Flight Path Validation in collaboration with Radiola Aerospace. The company also operates an airborne ISTAR service in support of British Army training and both pollution control and oil response flights.
DEA holds an EASA-CAT Air Operators Certificate issued by the UK-CAA and a CAA issued Type B Air Operator's Licence. It is licensed to carry cargo and passengers in aircraft with a maximum take-off weight not exceeding 5,700 kg and not more than 9 passenger seats.
DEA holds a Part M Subpart G with ARC privileges for managing airworthiness and a Part 145 approval for maintaining composite and metal structure aircraft up to 5,700 kg
History
Diamond-Executive Aviation was founded by Peter Bondar (a former director of Acorn Computers and Tadpole plc) and Chris Dawes (a marine biologist) in 2006. The application for an operating licence was not begun until 2008 and its air operator's certificate (AOC) was granted by the UK CAA in July 2009, at which point operations started with the company's first aircraft, a Diamond DA42. Initially the company operated from Bagby Airfield in North Yorkshire with a registered operational office nearby from an adapted garage in the grounds of founder Peter Bondar.
Two more DA42s joined the fleet in August 2009 and April 2010. In December 2010, DEA was granted a revised EU-AOC allowing Flight Inspection operations to be performed, the first DA42 based flight inspection service offered. This service was offered in partnership with Radiola Aerospace, a New Zealand-based company that was subsequently granted a CAP670 approval for Flight Inspection by the UK CAA. In 2011 two DA42MPPs were acquired; and partnered with 3SDL the company successfully tendered for a number of ISTAR contracts with the MoD using these aircraft.
The company formally moved to Retford (Gamston) Airport in April 2012. Follow on contracts for delivering ISTAR training to UK Forces training in Kenya were awarded in 2012 and later years with 3SDL and operations commenced in Italy. DEA joined the European Space Agency SASISA (Small-Aircraft Service for Instant Situational Awareness) project using a DA42 MPP along with Viasat and several other partners.
Fleet
DEA operates the world’s largest commercial fleet of Diamond DA42 Twin Stars.
The fleet includes: