Slate Aviation, the luxury brand of Tri-State Charter, has announced plans to convert thirty-five CRJ200-family aircraft from its fleet into VIP charter and shuttle seating configurations. These conversions will take place at the company's newly established 80,000-square-foot (7,432-square-metre) maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and cabin conversion facility at Macon Regional, a site previously occupied by Bombardier Aerospace and Stevens Aerospace.
"We’re going to be taking those airplanes, removing the interiors, and installing all-new cabin configurations. Everything from the behind-the-scenes engineering work to manufacturing the components will be handled in-house,” said Heather Maguire, co-owner of Slate Aviation.
The operator told ch-aviation it currently has twenty-two additional CRJs in the queue for conversion, held through its Slate CRJ Acquisitions entity.
Slate Aviation recently took over the East Coast shuttle operation of XOJET Aviation, part of the Vista America group. The converted CRJ200-family jets will support Slate Aviation’s charter and per-seat operations over the next two years. The company told ch-aviation that it plans to convert approximately 10 aircraft per year until 2026. The CRJ200s designated for shuttle services will feature an 18-seat all-business class configuration, while those intended for charter and owner operations will have a 19-seat layout resembling the Challenger 850 type, with 16 executive chairs and a three-place divan.
Currently, Slate Aviation operates its Part 135 fleet under Tri-State Charter's certificate, which includes two Challenger 800 (CRJ200)s, three Challenger 850s, five CRJ200ERs, two CRJ200LRs, which were recently added, and a CRJ200XR.
