The Future of Business Travel

As a regular business traveller you're faced with a number of choices for your travel solutions - Commercial Airlines, Jet Ownership, Fractional Jet Ownership, Ad-hoc Private Jet Charter or Managed Jet Charter Services.

For regular travellers we believe that there is a very strong argument in favour of a Managed Jet Charter Service such as the Jet Booking Direct M1NTCard product. This is particularly appropriate if your journeys combine short and long trips or if the number of passengers or departure airports vary.

Commercial Airlines restrict your travel arrangements to their schedule and you'll encounter a lot of dead time. There's traffic to the major airports, long queues at check-in & security and you have to get to the airport up to three hours before you fly. Whilst all of the major airports now offer wi-fi allowing you some working time, the overall efficiency of commercial travel is very questionable.

If the traffic makes you late or your meeting over runs your whole schedule can go out of the window. If you don't make it to check-in before the flight closes, you simply don't travel on your scheduled flight and can often find yourself spending hundreds or thousands getting on to the next flight. When you do get onto your flight there's the eternal struggle for the armrest, little choice for when & what you eat and there's very little privacy.

Jet ownership and fractional ownership will offer you time saving benefits but come with their own hazards. Both are rather costly alternatives with a lot of up front investment and regular additional costs.

Unlike fractional ownership, jet ownership offers the flexibility to fly when and where you want at very short notice, but for a non-stop transatlantic jet a few years old you're looking at a starting price in the region of $15-20 million. On top of that you have fuel, staffing, hangarage and maintenance costs.

Fractional ownership will allow you some flexibility but for a one-sixteenth share in a transatlantic jet with 50 hours of flying per annum, you're looking at an initial cost of around $1 million plus monthly fees offering little change from $10,000 and a charge for your flying time in the region of $2000 per hour. Invariably you'll be committed to a long term contract of up to five years, you'll also be restricted to using the jet or jet type in which you bought a share. If you're flying schedule is a combination of short and long trips or if the number of passengers or departure airport varies, this can work out to be a very expensive option.

With the M1NTCard fully managed private jet charter service from Jet Booking Direct, you get to enjoy all of the benefits of fractional or full jet ownership without the upfront costs, staffing, maintenance or hangarage. Additionally, you get to fly on the aircraft that suits your needs for each individual trip. If you need a jet for two passengers one week and ten the next, or if you depart from London one week but need a flight for colleagues in Moscow the next, that's exactly what you'll get without having to pay for the jet to get from London to Moscow in the first place.

If you open and place funds into a flight account you can often travel with as little as 2-3 hours notice. We'll also provide the right jet for the journey, number of passengers, time of day and the amount of luggage.

In the current economic climate it makes a lot of sense for your shareholders too. If they see money being spent on the ownership of a private jet and consider the amount of time the jet is stationery it can make very little sense. Their price for your private jet charter is fully inclusive so there won't be extra charges for fuel, tax, catering or anything else, you simply pay a small management fee and a pre-arranged and fully inclusive hourly rate for the jet or jets of your choice. By comparison to full or fractional jet ownership you'll be spending a lot less on private jet charter flights but enjoying all of the same benefits.

On all jet charter flights that originate in the UK Jet Booking Direct also include a complimentary chauffeur driven transfer from your home or office to the departure airport up to 50 miles, and also work with you to ensure that all of your preferences are met for the type of aircraft, the level of service, the catering and any other little luxuries you need.

Rob Dore is co-owner and Marketing Director of Jet Booking Direct who offer private jet charters and jet charter management services.