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According to various sources, since the beginning of the year, the number of business jet flights in Russia has decreased by about 30%. Demand has dropped along with prices, and now empty leg flights are almost half the price of charter flights. However, market experts do not predict significant growth in this segment in the near future.
One way ticket
An empty leg is a certain section of an air route along which a private jet, according to the previously approved plans of its owners, will proceed empty, and therefore it can be handed over to other passengers in advance at a low cost. If the client is found on time and pays for his transportation without interruption, then the owner of the plane will earn decent money on the air flight of his business jet, and the client will save a lot, because the cost of an average flight using the empty leg system is 30 -60%, experts say. “That is, for example, if a private plane on the Moscow-Nice route on a Challenger 604 can be rented conditionally for € 35-40 thousand, then an empty leg on this route will be offered for about € 20 thousand,” says the manager of sales of charter flights “Jet Transfer” Dmitry Antonov.
The Russian empty leg market is relatively young, market experts do not undertake to estimate its volume in numbers.
According to Andrey Kalinin, Executive Director of the Business Aviation Club, the number of air transportation by business jets has decreased by about 20% since the beginning of the year, charter prices have decreased by 10-15%, the transportation market is falling, and with it the number of flights using the empty leg system is decreasing. … Reductions in air travel are also noted by representatives of Russian airports. “Since 2013, the number of flights on business jets in our center has almost halved. In general, on the domestic Russian market, the volume of traffic in the business aviation sector this year has decreased by about 35%, ”says Vladimir Klimentiev, Deputy Director of the Domodedovo Business Aviation Center.
Expensive destinations
Flights using the empty leg system from Moscow are a seasonal business, and there are more chances to make money on it on the eve of September 1, on New Year's Eve, in early June on the eve of holidays, when there are many orders for flights. Most often, business jets from Moscow fly to Nice, Cannes, Pisa, Alicante, Munich, Tallinn, Riga, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Simferopol. Accordingly, passengers wishing to travel in the opposite direction during the high season have a lot of opportunities to fly by business jet cheaply.
The cost of a flight on a business jet consists of a number of factors, each company has its own, but the three main ones are the same for everyone: the flight range (the farther the distance, the more expensive the board), airport servicing of the aircraft (for example, basing at the Washington airport will cost the owner of the aircraft in $ 7 thousand, and at the Tokyo airport – € 10-15 thousand), the number of passengers (the fewer there are, the cheaper the flight). Alexander Evdokimov, General Director of Jet Transfer, assures that “the formation of prices for empty leg is covered with nuances.” “The cost of an empty leg depends on the airline’s willingness to sell this service. One AK, for example, needs to get from Moscow to Nice the next day for the next flight – then the price will be very attractive, because if they do not sell this empty leg at all, they will fly without additional profit: for example, it sometimes turns out to fly on a Challenger 604 to Western Europe for € 15 thousand, if the scenario is right. And another AK, for example, has an empty leg from Moscow to Nice, but there is no urgency for the flight, since they need to get there within a week: then the starting price will no longer be so low, since AK will hope that in a week there will be many more inquiries and she will have the opportunity to choose the most favorable price, ”says Alexander Evdokimov.
Broker to help
Before ordering a business jet using the empty leg system, you need to know where and how to look for information. Usually, those wishing to travel empty leg turn to intermediaries, to brokerage companies, for information about flights, which receive a commission on the cost of the flight either from the owner of the aircraft or from the operator. “Usually our commission ranges from 1-5% of the cost of the flight. Such cooperation can be remotely compared to the work of tour operators and travel agencies. But the broker is not limited to the sale of the flight, but provides round-the-clock customer support on all issues related to the flight. For example, ordering special meals on board, changing the flight schedule, support for transporting animals on board, as well as all questions when organizing medical flights. At the request of clients or their assistants, we handle the entire trip as a whole, providing additional services such as organizing transfers, helicopter transfers, yacht and real estate rental at the destination, ”says Artem Rumyantsev, General Director of ATM LLC.
According to experts, communicating with customers seeking an empty leg service is similar to communicating with customers seeking a standard charter. As a rule, customers do not limit the request for flights to just one empty leg, but consider it as one of the options. “A professional aviation broker, when receiving an application for a flight, for example, on the route Moscow – Pisa – Moscow with parking at two or three o'clock in the morning, will never waste time selecting empty legs, since it is impossible to pick them up with such logistics: even if to catch two perfect empty shoulders round-trip for € 20 thousand, there is still always the opportunity to find one board that will fly back and forth along this route for a lesser amount. If the client's request is for a one-way flight, then, of course, it makes sense to spend time looking for a suitable empty return flight, ”says Dmitry Antonov.
Information about the empty leg is published by operators in various professional online systems, many notify customers by SMS or mailing. Most of the empty leg appears a week before the departure date. Experts note that information about the empty leg is quickly becoming outdated: the best flights are instantly booked, and brokers need to be more careful: offering an empty leg to a client may not have time to redeem it.
Brokers charge a fee not just for providing information about the flight, but for its complete organization. In the process of organizing business aviation flights, there are many emergency situations that flight organizers need to be able to quickly resolve. “It happened that a couple of hours before departure the board was out of order and we urgently changed it, weather conditions forced us to look for alternative routes, several times we agreed with the management of the airport in Gorno-Altaysk (flights from China arrive there) to open the airport at night, although the airport is closed at night. In short, in the course of work we solve very complex equations, ”says Andrey Kalinin.
Brokers say that the smaller the plane, the cheaper the flight. For example, an hour of flight on a four-seat Citation Mustang will cost € 2,000-2,500 per hour. Such a plane has no conveniences, is designed for a two-hour flight, and most often flies in Europe. In Russia, with its many kilometers of distance, they most often use aircraft designed for 10-15 passengers, such as Challenger 605, Embraer Legacy 600. Experts of the empty leg market do not hope for its rapid growth in the coming years, but they do not predict it will decline and in general careful in their forecasts. “In principle, we observed a decline in this segment five years ago, but then the demand for business jets recovered. After the current recession, there will also be an upturn, but one should not wait for it in the near future, ”says Vladimir Klimentiev, Deputy Director of the Domodedovo Business Aviation Center.
Anna Anikeeva
Source: Kommersant Applications
