Membership growth and greater international use of Paris Le Bourget airport contribute to 70% expansion

NetJets Europe is pointing to impressive growth figures in France as evidence it has solved earlier problems penetrating parts of the continental European market.

The number of NetJets flight movements at its French base, Paris Le Bourget airport, has grown by 70% when comparing the first five months of 2003 with the same period this year.

NetJets Europe has become the largest operator at Le Bourget, with over 15% of all movements at the airport. Rob Dranitzke, business development director at NetJets Europe, says part of this growth is attributable to NetJets members from elsewhere in the world using Le Bourget, but most is due to membership growth.

The London-based NetJets off­shoot is Europe’s only true jet fractional ownership scheme, with US rivals using different business models in Europe citing a lack of demand on the continent. NetJets Europe struggled to attract business customers in France, Germany and other core European markets and threw funds behind a vigorous marketing campaign in those countries two years ago (Flight International, 11-18 March 2003).

Dranitzke says: “Customer growth in France is still lower than you might expect compared with its GDP [gross domestic product], but it’s not like two years ago when we asked ourselves whether we’d ever sell an aircraft in France.”

Dranitzke concedes NetJets Europe’s business model of part ownership has less appeal in France than in the USA, due to the fear of an aircraft appearing on the balance sheet. NetJets Europe has, for example, more private individuals than corporations as customers in France, one of the few territories to see higher high net-worth individual take-up. “It’s a cultural question, like in Germany too; some countries are slower to embrace fractional ownership, even if they are using private aircraft on an ad hoc charter basis,” he says.

Despite this, France is now the second largest market for NetJets Europe, behind the UK, but ahead of Germany. In Germany the new customers are taking smaller shares, the 25h Marquis Jet card or smaller aircraft, bringing the value down, says Dranitzke. “But key to future success is client acquisition, because they tend to trade up,” he says.

Justin Wastnage/London

Source: Flight International