Over the past five years, private flights have become much more affordable than they used to be. RBC Travel has discovered that it offers its customers a variety of services in an attempt to democratize private aviation.
The modern world is changing rapidly, and with it even such conservative industries as private aviation are changing. With the advent of the Internet and smartphones, clients no longer need to come to the broker's office or hang on their phone for hours – you can charter a plane with just a few taps in the app. And the ability to book an empty leg, that is, an empty one-way flight, or just a seat on a private flight, allows you to save on buying a private jet or renting a board. In addition to savings, there are other advantages – for example, the ability to go to the plane's ladder, bypassing the tedious queues for registration, passport control and security checks. There are also disadvantages.
Travelers flying on an empty flight are limited in freedom of movement: the plane has already been chartered by another client and must arrive at the airport at a strictly defined time, so you will have to adjust to his schedule. For those booking a seat in a business jet, there is also a lack of privacy, since other passengers will fly with them. Due to these shortcomings, many companies limit or do not introduce such services: for example, the largest player in the business aviation market PrivateFly has empty flights only 5% of the total number of orders, and there is no seat reservation at all.
“For many clients, the main advantage of private flights is the ability to create their own itinerary and travel without strangers – exactly what empty or code-share flights cannot offer,” PrivateFly CEO Adam Twedell told RBC Travel. This is probably why many services and applications providing such services have crashed: Beacon closed a year after it appeared, BlackJet – after four. Barely having time to declare themselves, FreshJets and Ubair went to the bottom. But others have succeeded.
JetSmarter
The app, created in 2012 by Florida entrepreneur Sergei Petrossov, is dubbed “Uber for Private Jets.” Its main advantage is a flexible system for booking individual seats on private flights for JetSmarter club members. The entrance to the club will cost $ 5 thousand under the Simple program or $ 15 thousand under the Smart program. In return, members get the opportunity to book free seats for themselves all year round on specially organized JetShuttle flights (over 25 destinations). True, Simple card holders can only fly on flights that last less than three hours, while Smart owners traveling from Moscow to European cities have to pay extra for a seat from $ 200 to $ 500.
Also, club members can participate in JetDeals promotions – book free seats on suddenly empty flights of airlines with which JetSmarter cooperates. Smart card holders will be able to take with them up to three fellow travelers who are not members of the club. Finding out about such offers is easy: just select the desired directions in the application and turn on the notification icon. Club members can also reserve additional seats on JetShuttle for their non-JetSmarter satellites, but this will cost significantly more: for example, the cost of a flight from Moscow to Nice on a 12-seat Embraer Legacy 600 will be $ 5,623.
Surf Air is a subscription service: its customers pay a monthly fee ranging from $ 1950 to $ 2950 in exchange for unlimited flights on the Pilatus PC-12 on scheduled routes between 12 Californian cities. You can book a seat on the flight using the application of the same name. Holders of the most expensive – platinum – status receive two free nights at the hotel, the ability to book six flights at the same time, book a round-trip flight for a third-party passenger for $ 1,000 and fly to all cities on the itinerary (unlike Basic status holders whose travel is limited seven directions). At the moment, the service works only in California, but in June this year it should appear in Europe as well: passengers will be able to fly on the Embraer Phenom 300 from London to Cannes, Zurich and Geneva. Monthly contributions will range from £ 1750 to £ 3150, depending on the selected status.
LunaJets
LunaJets' strong point is the empty flight system. Information about the cost of such flights is publicly available on the company's website. And this is really convenient: for some services, the cost of empty legs must be requested separately. If there is no suitable empty flight, LunaJets employees use the corporate database to search for a private jet that, during an empty leg, can change the route, pick up the client at the airport and deliver it to its destination. The cost of this service is more expensive than an empty flight, but cheaper than a regular business jet rental. You can also book a seat on a private flight using LunaJets, but such offers do not appear as often as in JetSmarter. It is much more convenient in this regard for those who book the entire plane: if the client decides to sell part of the seats to other passengers at the price he needs, LunaJets will notify other users of this offer free of charge.
