VLJ Air Taxi Services in UK and Europe
| With the introduction of Very Light Jets (VLJs) onto the aircraft market comes a new type of air taxi service which can cut the cost of jet charter by 30 to 50%. We overview the companies in the UK and Europe offering this type of service. |
Very Light Jets are small jet planes capable of travelling up to 4 passengers on short-haul flights. The following companies in UK / Europe are running, plan to run or were running a VLJ air taxi charter service:
Blink - Marketed as "Europe's first air taxi service", UK based Blink fly $2.6m Cessna Citation Mustangs out of (London) Farnborough airport. Bases in Geneva and the Channel Islands opened in September 2009. Blink has a large order of 30 Mustangs configured to 4 seats (face-to-face) with a range of 1,300 miles for 2 passengers and 900 miles for 4 passengers. The flights are operated by TAG Aviation.
Examples of one-way and day return prices quoted by Blink: London - Paris £1,999 / £2,199; London - Dublin £2,099 / £2,299, London - Edinburgh £2,299 / £2,599, London - Geneva £3,199 / £3,599, London - Milan £4,199 / £4,599, London - Barcelona £4,799 / £5,299.
These prices exclude landing fees - Blink will charge you these at cost -typically £350 to £400 per airport.
Blink offers various advance purchase fares - 21 day (cheapest), 14 day, 7 day, 3 day and walk-up fares - or you can pre-purchase a block of travel. The day returns will give the best value. Light refreshments are available on board (no cabin crew) and there is a toilet available. Customers can arrive as late as 10 minutes before take-off.
Blink has a 15,000 mile program called "Foresight" which offers up to 50 hours of day return travel. Mileage is calculated from designated Blink hubs. The program costs £67,500 from London and Channel Islands and €79,500 from Geneva.
Blink also has a "Shuttle" program for organisations that need to move people between locations. In some cases this could be very cost-effective compared to travel by scheduled airlines.
London Executive Aviation - Long established charter operator based at London City airport. Also has hubs at Farnborough, Luton, Stansted, Biggin Hill, Stapleford and Oxford. Have 6 Cessna Citation Mustangs which they offer as charters at up to 30% less than a standard light jet. Was the first European operator of the Mustang, starting back in February 2008.
JetBird - Plan to launch a major point-to-point on demand private jet service in Europe sometime in 2010. They have an order to purchase 10 Embraer Phenom 100 (4 seats) with up to another 88 aircraft being delivered by 2013.
The Phenom 100 will take 4 passengers and has a range of 1,160 nautical miles (1,334 statute miles).
JetBird is based in Cologne-Bonn, Germany - ideally located in the economic heartland of Europe and also providing easy access to the Mediterranean and Adriatic leisure destinations. It plans to have hubs in London Stansted in the UK, Paris Le Bourget in France, Basel in Switzerland and Milan in Italy.
JetBird claim their prices will undercut the traditional jet charter operators by half.
Bikkair - Rotterdam, Netherlands based air taxi service started in March 2008, 3 months before Blink. Got some initial market share but due to the financial crisis decided to halt operations in January 2009. Had a fleet of Cessna Citation Mustangs and was offering air taxi service selling individual seats and block hours.
Taxijet - Spanish company wanting to set up as a VLJ operator - still waiting for an announcement. Plan to have a fleet of 30 Eclipse 500s by 2013. (Note, Eclipse Aviation are going through restructuring of the company). With Spain's economic problems we will have to see if they can fly.
Whilst the credit crisis has reduced demand for private aviation, the air taxi segment hopes flyers will be attracted by lower prices.
Note, article for information purposes only, prices can change.
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