Booking a Private Jet? There's an App for That
Photo Credit: David Brossard
For those stuck in freezing cold cities this winter, you may find yourself constantly daydreaming about booking a last-minute flight to someplace warm and sunny. Well, the folks over at JetSmarter, a mobile marketplace that allows users to book private jets directly from their Smartphones, were thinking the same thing. After getting swamped with calls by people wanting to get out of New York, the tech-savvy company decided to offer free private jet flights for members in New York to and from cities such as Los Angeles via its JetShuttle.
So, how does it work exactly? JetShuttle is a shared aircraft charter, offered at a fraction of the price. Users can choose from single seats on already scheduled flights in select markets at discounted rates for non-members, and free for members. Or, you can create your own JetShuttle, which is a shared aircraft charter offered at a fraction of the price, where the cost of a flight is split amongst travelers who seek the same itinerary. Flights are always guaranteed and booking is available year round.
Photo: Courtesy of JetSmarter
"JetSmarter offers instant pricing and availability for private jets across the globe, allowing users to book a flight themselves without the hassle of dealing with a middle man," CEO and Founder, Sergey Petrossov, tells Oyster.com. "Users can booking their flight in a matter of minutes and then fly within six hours." You also save time compared to flying on a commercial airline. Flights offer free helicopter transfers and allow travelers to avoid hours of security lines, and lost baggage, and you have the ability to hold the plane if you're running late.
Though convenient, you're probably thinking this service costs an arm and a leg. While it isn't cheap, it certainly is less expensive than traditionally chartering a flight. In fact, the JetShuttle service is free for JetSmarter members (after paying a $9,000 annual membership fee). Standard private jet charters, on the other hand, can cost any where from $1,600 an hour to $8,600 an hour. So, if you're making the cross-country flight frequently already, it can add up to quite a bit of savings. If you're a non-member you'd have to pay $9,980 per seat for this route.
Photo: Courtesy of JetSmarter
To make things even more appealing to frequent flyers, the company has also created JetDeal, where they provide free flights to members in bundles of two to five seats per flight -- and family and friends can join free of charge. "We want to make private flying easy and accessible for more than just the one percent who are used to chartering private planes," adds Petrossov. "My outlook for the private jet industry is that mass travel between 100 to 1,000 miles will all be private air travel in the future, and large airline-style commercial aviation will be a thing of the past in 20 years. I also believe that operational costs will significantly decrease due to hybrid electric aircraft, and with proper sharing technologies (like JetSmarter app), private aviation will be priced at a level accessible to the masses."
While it may still seem out of reach for many of us, Petrossov says his business is steadily growing. "We’ve had a great response," he tells us. "We’re constantly growing at 15 to 20 percent each month and have over 300,000 downloads since we launched in 2013."
And the company is already planning to expand. "We want to make this service accessible to consumers across the globe," adds Petrossov. "Because of that, we are continuously expanding our services and enhancing our JetDeal and JetShuttle offerings. Just this week alone, we’ve launched more coast-to-coast JetShuttles including New York to Los Angeles, New York to Las Vegas, New York to San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles, and Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas. We are also expanding our JetShuttle offerings across Europe and Asia this spring."
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