Air travel: People's charter
Think private charter flights are the preserve of celebrities and wealthy magnates? Think again, says Gary Noakes, who has some advice on where to start
You’re used to booking clients on to flights every day, but what if someone wants something special, different or exclusive? Chartering a flight is not just the preserve of agencies specialising in celebrity or corporate travel, as there are plenty of opportunities to appeal to those marking special occasions or needing to get more easily from A to B. The leisure sector can learn from the business travel world, which is more familiar with the concept.
Wayne Pollard, sales and marketing director at Omega Executive Travel, oversees the occasional hire of small jets through Chapman Freeborn. A recent example, for a Japanese client, saw Omega secure an eight-seat jet to fly from Farnborough to Lugarno, with the four-day round-trip costing around £12,000 – not cheap, but at £1,500 a head, not beyond the means of some either.
Pollard advises leisure agents to sign up with private jet companies like Chapman Freeborn and look out for special offers, such as “empty legs”, where an aircraft would otherwise fly without passengers, meaning a luxury one-way journey can be paired with a normal commercial flight.
Commercial airlines such as bmi regional are another option, as many of its 37 and 49-seat jet aircraft are at a loose end at weekends because they normally serve business routes.
“If it’s a special occasion such as a wedding or a milestone birthday, then chartering a private 50-seater jet will certainly deliver the ‘wow’ factor,” says Lee Rennie, bmi’s head of charter services. “Flying from an airport like Bristol, we can easily serve destinations such as Scandinavia, the south of France and much of mainland Europe for celebratory city day trips.”
Chartering is cost-effective, Rennie says, even for last-minute bookings, with pricing from £300pp per day. “It’s far from an extravagance, especially as that can include a bespoke inflight menu and bar service and even a logo on the aircraft.”
Pollard adds that it’s important to factor the advantages into the overall cost. “There’s the added benefit that everybody is meeting at the same point. It means there’s no difficulties with numerous flights and transfers having to meet up and you don’t have the issue that you’re travelling out of a major airport.”
Customer care is another issue for Pollard. “We get continuous updates from Chapman Freeborn about when the clients arrive at the airport, when the flight boards and when it arrives. The information you get is fantastic if you work with the right suppliers.” Stepping up a notch, a few agencies have gone the whole distance and chartered big commercial aircraft on a one-off or even full-season contract, either because they have spotted a niche market or out of necessity.
The Isle of Man’s Freedom Travel has taken chartering to this level, producing brochures to destinations including Malta, Benidorm and the Balearics, plus a ski programme.
Jan Wozniak, Freedom’s managing director, says the agency stepped in seven years ago when a tour operator pulled out.
“We were just doing the ski flights originally as Flybe had a spare aircraft and then we had an opportunity to do something in summer,” he explains.
Freedom still charters with Flybe but also operates a 76-seat British Airways jet for its Balearics flights – an appropriate size for the island’s population of only 85,000.
Chartering its own flights allows Freedom to bring “old-fashioned values” to its tour operating. “We look after clients from start to finish – the size of the island means it’s too small to make a mistake.”
The ability for clients to fly direct is a big selling point, Wozniak believes: “People think they can easily go via the UK, but it means double check-in, double security and possibly an overnight stay.”
He is coy about numbers, but Freedom seems to have a niche well covered. “There is a limit to the market – is it big enough for other operators to come in? I would say no,” he adds.
Reviving a tradition
Bath Travel was once known for its charter flights from Bournemouth using Palmair, a brand with only a single aircraft, but which was renowned for its service. Hays Travel was keen to revive this tradition when it bought the agency chain.
“It’s been John Hays’ vision in terms of what Bath Travel used to be good at,” says Hays’ head of product Lee Ainsworth. A deal with BA has seen Bath Travel secure a 98-seat Embraer jet that normally lies idle at London City airport at weekends to fly from Bournemouth to Barcelona, Venice and Milan for five weeks in April and May next year. The Italy flights are based around cruises or a Shearings’ Italian Lakes touring package. “These flights are unique in April and May – they’re going really well,” adds Ainsworth, who says the success is due to matching the product to the local market.
A bigger commitment was to charter a 300-seat Thomson Airways Boeing 787 flying from Bournemouth to Barbados to offer a cruise package with P&O’s Azura, but any potential worries were unfounded. “It sold out in 42 days,” says Michelle Payne, cruise relationship manager. This prompted the agency to charter another flight a week later in February, meeting P&O’s Britannia, again in Barbados. “We’re trying to bring back the history Bath Travel had and give clients what they used to receive,” she says. “We’d be silly not to reconsider this in the future.”
Flying among the stars
If agents do spot a niche and fancy a gamble, Titan Airways is one company to approach. Titan flies the stars of football, music and entertainment around the world on a fleet carrying from six to 265 passengers. Commercial director Alastair Kiernan says it would also cater to any agent needing to book that ultra-special one-off trip.
Titan recently flew a wedding party of 265 guests to Kilimanjaro. Kiernan says Marrakech is another popular venue for celebrations. “Maybe we do two or three of these a year,” he says.
A recent request was for a group to fly to meet a yacht in St Tropez. There are no fixed costs for this type of trip, of course, but Kiernan adds: “For a couple of hundred people down to St Tropez for three to four days, it’s maybe around £250,000.”
Cost-effective cruising
If your clients don’t have a yacht in St Tropez but want to feel as if they had one (at least when flying there), one cruise brand is offering a cost-effective option.
Celebrity Cruises is claiming an industry first with its Jet Set Sail, which will appeal particularly to the special-occasion cruiser with departures from the private jet terminal at Stansted.
Celebrity’s flight is with Titan, whose Boeing 737 pulls up to the door of the Inflite Jet Centre from July 7 next year, serving Celebrity Equinox sailings from Barcelona, Rome, Athens and Istanbul. Jet Set Sail offers free parking 50 metres from the luxury terminal and a one-hour check-in, plus all the usual features associated with premium travel, although the lounge offers light refreshments only. Seven-night itineraries including Jet Set Sail start at £1,598pp.
Michael English, Celebrity’s head of business development, says sales so far have been “a very pleasant surprise” with bookings from clients as far away as Cardiff.
Jet Set Sail is offered for a £100-£160 premium over scheduled Heathrow departures, which English said was good value: “If you park at Heathrow, you probably pay £10 a day – and coming back your car [at Stansted] will be 5-10 minutes from stepping off the aircraft.”
The opportunities for agents are definitely out there – it’s all in the way you pitch it to your customers.
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