Kate Sarsfield/LONDON
TransJet.com, believed to be the world's first online fractional ownership provider, has sold all the shares in its first business jet, a British Aerospace Hawker 125-600. The company is acquiring a second Hawker and a Bombardier Challenger 601, which it expects to sell out quickly.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Transjet.com, which started operations at the end of February, using nearby Binnini Island Air for charter back-up, signed an agreement with GE Capital to finance the business aircraft fleet. Garrett Krause, president and chief executive of 3wVentures.com, the fractional operator's owner, says: "We seal pre-commitments for each business jet. GE provides finance capital to get the aircraft in the air."
Plans call for up to 40 city bases in the USA, each with up to two aircraft, and a London-based European service. "Our next step will be to add Los Angeles [125-600] and New York [Challenger 601] to our operating base by the end of the year. More bases will be added as the demand increases," adds Krause.
The launch of TransJet.com's Bombardier Learjet 36-based air ambulance operation has been put on hold while 3wVentures.com, a California-based internet funding subsidiary of venture capitalist Web Capital, of Florida, focuses on the fractional programme. "We have leased out the aircraft for six months, but we plan to begin a Los Angeles-based online air ambulance operation before the end of the year."
Meanwhile, online business aircraft charter company Indigo, which began operations in early March selling seats on business jet flights between Chicago Midway and Teterboro, New York, has closed a deal on a second Dassault Falcon 20. A third aircraft is to be acquired by the end of the month.
Flightserv.com's Private Seats online business aircraft operation is to begin on 17 April, between New York and Atlanta.
Source: Flight International
