GlobeAir – the world’s largest operator of Cessna Citation Mustang business jets – is planning to launch a per-seat, on-demand air taxi service next year, to take advantage of the rising interest in its entry-level aircraft and an explosion in the use of mobile technology platforms.
The Austrian company has a fleet of 16 Mustangs, which are currently chartered on a whole-aircraft basis. GlobeAir founder and chief executive Bernhard Fragner says that while this model will continue to appeal to the majority of business aircraft users, a growing population of current and potential customers are open to sharing an aircraft with strangers.
GlobeAir
“Technology and innovation is developing at an exponential rate,” says Fragner. “We now have a digitally literate and sharing generation who want the power to access various services at the touch of a button – from taxis and accommodation through Uber and Airbnb to seats on a private jet.”
As a service industry, business aviation has to be prepared for this revolution, he says. “It’s coming.”
GlobeAir is now developing an online and mobile booking system that will enable customers to reserve a place on a four-seat Mustang on popular routes such as London City to Paris Le Bourget. It could be launched as soon as the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in May 2018.
He is confident that this per-seat offering will lower the entry barrier to private aviation and open up the market “to so many more people”.
Source: Flight International
