Customers of air taxi operators GlobeAir and JetSuite are to be offered a seamless travel experience when flying within Europe and the USA, following the launch at EBACE of a new partnership between the two air taxi pioneers.
“It is something we have been talking about for some time and now we have decided to make it formal,” says GlobeAir founder and chief executive Bernhard Fragner.
GlobeAir and JetSuite are early adopters of the entry-level and very light jet-based pan-continental, point-to-point air taxi model, and two of only a handful of companies that have survived since the 2008 financial crisis. “We began services with a small number of [Cessna Citation] Mustangs late that year and JetSuite followed in the US with its [Embraer] Phenom 100s six months later].Our business models are very similar,” says Fragner.
Under the terms of the partnership GlobeAir customers who travel to the US can access the JetSuite fleet for their private transport needs. “The same service is provided to JetSuite customers travelling to the Europe,” says Fragner. Their itinerary is still managed by the respective home programmes.
“We expect the service to be popular, particularly with those customers looking to fly to major sporting events in the US and Europe, such as Formula I and the Champions League.”
GlobeAir is the world’s largest Mustang operator with a fleet of 14 aircraft – five of which were bought new, while the rest were acquired on the second-hand market. “These units were all low-time with only one previous owner,” says Fragner. A 15th Mustang is scheduled for delivery by the end of June and further five by the end of 2017.
The fleet has recently undergone a complete refurbishment. “Each of those aircraft flies 650h a year, so the interior was beginning to look a little tired and worn.”
GlobeAir’s business is going from strength to strength driven by a growing demand for entry-level charter within Europe. “Given that a small to medium cabin business jet typically carries between one and two passengers for less than two hours, many people are choosing to downgrade from the larger more expensive aircraft, to the Mustangs,” says Fragner.
Source: Flight Daily News
