CLEARWATER, Fla. – October 27, 2009 -- Avantair, Inc. (OTCBB: AAIR), the sole North American provider of flight hour time cards and fractional shares in the Piaggio Avanti aircraft, today announced preliminary flight time card sales and flight hours flown for its fiscal first quarter ended September 30, 2009.

First Quarter Fiscal 2010 Sales Highlights

• Flight time cards sold for the three months ended September 30, 2009 increased 69% to 86 compared to 51 flight time cards sold during the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, 2009, and 219% from 27 for the fiscal first quarter ended September 30, 2008.
• Revenue-generating flight hours flown reached a new quarterly record, increasing 13% quarter-over-quarter to 9,356 hours compared to 8,277 hours for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, 2009, and increasing 11% year-over-year compared to 8,393 for the fiscal first quarter ended September 30, 2008.

Steven Santo, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Avantair, said, “Our record quarterly performance is the result of several key factors: our enhanced sales and marketing initiatives as well as increasing customer awareness of the fuel efficiency of the Piaggio aircraft and the superior cost value of an Avantair program compared to the light-jet programs of our competitors. Our favored eco-friendly operations and low carbon emissions aircraft are also driving the growth and expansion of our business and awareness of the Avantair brand. While we are seeing improvement in the fractional share portion of our business, the main driver of revenue growth is the continued surge of interest in our flight time card programs.

“The outstanding numbers for our September quarter show that we are not only increasing our penetration of the existing market but also expanding our total market as new and referral customers realize the value of our product offerings,” Mr. Santo continued.  “Our fleet expansion is well-timed in order to keep pace with the strong demand for our flight programs and we continue to build our presence in both existing and new geographical regions. In addition, the significant cost effectiveness of our aircraft has resulted in the expansion of our marketing targets to include a broader and more diverse audience.  Widespread environmental concerns and the problems impacting commercial travel make our value proposition clear particularly with those businesses that are most concerned with responsible private transportation alternatives.”

Avantair recently announced the expansion of its fleet with the addition of four aircraft, three of which have already been received and one of which is expected to be added before the end of the calendar year.  The Company’s improved capital structure following the closing of the final tranche of a financing for total gross proceeds of $10.4 million enabled this expansion. Avantair maintains world class FBO’s in Camarillo, California and Caldwell, New Jersey and its headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. These FBO’s allow the Company to support its operations and deliver premier services to Avantair’s customers while maintaining the highest levels of safety. The Company’s primary service area currently includes the Continental United States, international locations in Canada within 200 miles of the Continental US, and flights between seven select airports in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz and Puerto Vallarta. 

Avantair will report financial results for the fiscal first quarter 2010 ended September 30, 2009 during the second week of November; details will be forthcoming.