Tour company to add larger planes

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Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

Air Vegas Airlines, which operates a fleet of nine 15-passenger Beechcraft C-99 twin-engine tour planes from Henderson Executive Airport, will add two 19-seat planes to its fleet next year.

Jim Petty, chief executive officer of Air Vegas Enterprise, said the 30-year-old company would add two twin-engine De Havilland Twin Otter Vistaliners for its Grand Canyon air tours in the spring.

Las Vegas-based Twin Otter International is leasing the planes, which have enlarged windows and four-bladed noise-suppressing propellers. Terms of the leases were not disclosed.

The Twin Otter Vistaliner is the main aircraft type used by Air Vegas rival Scenic Airlines, the largest Grand Canyon tour operator, which has 21 of the planes its its fleet during peak operations.