BA’s private jet service
The news that British Airways has announced a private jet ‘add-on’ offering in the US is great for the industry as a whole and demonstrates that private aviation does not compete with scheduled services but instead compliments it. As we see with many of our clients, passengers will use a commercial airline for the long haul section of their journey with a connecting private jet to get them to the closest airfield to their final destination.
Increasingly for today’s time-starved travellers, private aviation is not about luxury but is simply a time saving tool.
BA’s step follows other airlines doing the same and clearly shows a industry trend. Lufthansa were the first to do so, initially with a partnership with NetJets. This was so successful for Lufthansa that they bought their own private jets and now run their own connecting services. Incidently Lufthansa Private Jets are members of the PrivateFly network. (See previous post)
Last week Delta announced a new one-stop booking for commercial and private jet travel in the US – offering loyalty-based discounts on their commercial fares for customers who add on private jet connections. Also announced in the last month, Korean Air have formed an alliance with Flexjet in the US, whereby passengers can obtain guaranteed access to private jet connections on a fleet of Bombardier business jets.
All of this demonstrates that private jet travel is increasingly being seen as a mainstream travel option – offering high levels of convenience, customer service and time-efficiency. And there are advantages for the customer in booking their private jet together with their commercial air ticket, such as a central booking system for airline and private jet and coordination of checked baggage (although passengers on international flights will still need to clear customs with their bags).
But there are also clear disadvantages to booking a private jet via an airline:
- These airlines partnerships will not result in value for money. Passengers are tied to one private jet provider so there is no market comparison or competition. Additionally the airlines build in a booking fee margin for themselves so this increases the end price for the customer.
- There are limitations on aircraft types so passengers do not necessarily end up with the most appropriate (or efficient) aircraft for their journey.
It will be interesting to see how these partnerships develop in the months ahead.
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