Switching on to technology in business jet charter
Great to see this article in the latest edition of industry magazine Corporate Jet Investor: ‘Booking a private jet: Aircraft charter 2.0‘.
Editor Alasdair Whyte comments that “Online charter booking platforms have suddenly become a key source of customers for operators”. We couldn’t agree more!
PrivateFly has now been as essential part of the business development strategy for key operators in Europe and the US for several years, so I’ m not so sure about the ‘suddenly’. But it’s certainly true to say that we’re at a stage in the technological revolution of our industry where no operator should ignore the marketing possibilities for their business.
When I started talking to people about the concept for PrivateFly back in 2007, I was told repeatedly by those in the industry that ‘no-one will ever book a private jet online’. That’s been disproved over and over again and it’s now commonplace for private jet users to do all or some of their research and booking online or via app (including our biggest ever app booking, a $500K multi-leg flight). Of course, we also have an experienced multi-lingual flight team who you can call for advice 24/7 on +44 1747 642 777.
Today’s private jet customer – or their booking agent – also want to see a comparison of their options on accredited aircraft, quickly and transparently in one place, rather than spending hours going to individual operators for quotes.
So for the operator, making their aircraft available to these active customers online, via a widely-used and trusted platform, makes total commercial sense. We work hard to make the operator end of our platform as efficient and user-friendly as possible and are now integrated with over 7,000 charter aircraft worldwide.
Our latest developments include enhanced integration with the software providers that operators already use for scheduling their aircraft in both Europe and the US. This gives opportunities to quote for itineraries that match up to live aircraft locations, and makes it even faster to quote and win business.
Of course technology never stands still, and there is still so much that we can do to drive greater efficiency in our industry, which is surely great news for everyone – even those who doubted private jet customers would book online. As Alasdair Whyte concludes “if a new generation of travellers are brought into the industry by the ease of booking online, it is surely great news for the industry”.
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