Aviation connoisseurs will tell you that some years produce better vintages than others. Some would point to 1977 as a case in point. British Airways set up a London – New York route, flying its brand new supersonic jet, Concorde. The NASA space shuttle made its first test flight off the back of a jetliner, and Geneva based PrivatAir began operations in Geneva. The company is throwing a massive celebratory party on Wednesday night]. Chief executive Greg Thomas is delighted to be hosting the company’s anniversary during EBACE, which he says has also undergone a complete revolution. “The show has become a terrific success and is valued highly by the business aviation community. The quality of the level of attendees makes it a tremendous event.”
Thomas describes PrivatAir’s origins, “we started life as a small family-owned business, flying ‘guests’ on board 737-200s and G400s. However, we were flying many high profile individuals. This gave us the experience of flying highly demanding passengers and gave us a highly developed sense of customer service.” The airline expanded its fleet and received its Swiss air operators certificate in June 1995. According to Thomas at that time there were only six VIP 757s in the world and PrivatAir was very discreet with its marketing, selling seats only to a select group of high net worth individuals. Thomas laughs, “the industry joke was that PrivatAir really was ‘private’. You only knew about it if you needed to know about it. It was like one of those exclusive private members’ clubs.”
In August 2000, PrivatAir acquired Flight Services Group in the USA and rebranded itself as the PrivatAir Group. It was also the year Thomas came on board. “We set up a marketing arm, which still exists today. We manage around 40 aircraft in the US for third parties, offering a turnkey solution. We also offer maintenance and sale and purchase consultation services.” However, 2001 saw a global recession, as well as the event that marked a turning point in the aviation industry. Thomas elaborates, ”although it is widely assumed that 9/11 benefited business aviation, it actually happened in the middle of a recession. So although we made ten times as many quotes, we booked the same number of flights. People looked at the difference between an airline ticket and a jet rental price.”
The following year was a tough one for the company says Thomas. It started up its then revolutionary business class only service across the Atlantic for Lufthansa, with a 48 seat BBJ. The idea came about as PrivatAir had invested in the aircraft for high-end world tours, which were all cancelled after September 11. They had the aircraft and approached Lufthansa, a company that Thomas credits as being one of the speediest to implement an idea once the concept has been approved. Privatair has subsequently partnered with KLM and Swiss.
The company will expand with new routes for its existing partners, though Thomas remains tight-lipped about where these will be. “There is nothing close to fruition,” he says. The company’s latest 787 acquisition is aimed at those clients who would normally choose a 50-60 seater and that wish to fly an 80-90 all business class service. Since the company will only have one 787 it would uneconomical to use it on ultra-long haul routes, where crew would go out of hours and it would only make one flight a day.
Thomas would not rule out the possibility of PrivatAir acquiring a fleet of VLJs, although it certainly is not something the company is planning to do in the near future. However, he is bemused by media interest in the sector. “I do not understand why there is so much hype about them. Perfectly good turboprops can fly the same
Source: Flight Daily News
