Air Partner, the company specialising in evacuating business people from the world's trouble spots, has announced record profits.

Finding aircraft to evacuate foreign nationals from imminent danger put the Crawley-based company in a strong position.

Over the last 12 months, the firm was involved in getting people out of East Timor and Sierra Leone.

With increasing uncertainty in the Middle East, interest in Air Partner's services remains strong.

Launched last year, Air Partner's Rapid Air Support allowed companies to plan the removal of personnel from hotspots using chartered planes.

The business won seven clients with a further ten companies expected to sign up.

The majority of the firm's contracts came from flying business people around the world.

Last year, its flights covered nine million miles, the equivalent of once around the world every day of the year.

For the year to July 31, it enjoyed a 16 per cent rise in turnover to £78 million.

Profits have improved every year in its 15-year history of trading and for the year to July 31 were £2.67 million.

There was heavy investment in new initiatives during this period. Offices were opened in New York, Vienna and Zurich and there were strong performances from operations in Germany, France and the U.S.

Group managing director David Saville said the company was by far the largest of its kind in the world - bigger than both its nearest rivals combined.

Chairman Tony Mack said: "This year has been one of substantial investment in new products and offices, positioning the group to exploit market opportunities."

He said trading over the last three months has been strong and advance orders were higher than at the same time last year.

"With our new initiatives and geographical expansion, I'm confident we'll achieve further growth."