Hello and welcome. Flying on private jets used to be just for the rich and famous. But the sector became one of aviation's growth spots during the pandemic and this trend looks set to continue. I'm Jonathan Perez from the money mine team and we're talking about the five things you didn't know about chartering a private jet. Joining me today is Ian moore, the chief commercial officer of Vista Jet, the world's largest operator of business jets. I Ian, thanks for joining us. Thank
you, Jonathan. Thanks for having me
on. Maybe we could start by telling us a little bit about vista Jet about the company and especially your presence in Asia and in particular, Singapore
were really the first and only true global business aviation company. We entered into the Asian market with the acquisition of sky jet from Bombardier in 2008. We have a unique and innovative business model. We basically replicate aircraft ownership the advantages that you don't have to buy into an aircraft, it's an asset light model. You just buy the hours you need from us and get to use those hours wherever you are around the world.
Now tell us a bit about how it works because do you have to be part of a club? Do you have to commit to a certain amount of hours a year? That kind of thing.
We have multiple ways to enjoy our fleet. We started the VJ 25 level, which is a 25 hour commitment over a multiyear period. So you have three years, 25 hours per year and then we really enter into our program which is our flagship product and that starts at 50 hours per year and that's a truly global offering. So you make one phone call and aircraft will pick you up, you only pay for the hours you're in
the aircraft. So for example, if you're flying from Singapore Hong kong, you'd only be charged for Singapore Hong kong, not for any return travel or waiting time or pilots, hotels. You're only paying for the hours you're in the aircraft. So it's a very efficient and very transparent way to fly the efficiencies of being able to interchange between different aircraft types, larger
aircraft for longer fly smaller aircraft for shorter flights. All creates an element of financial efficiency and operational efficiency to pass the benefits on to our clients.
Now, you know, when you're talking about private jets immediately, you think of billionaires, you think of Elon musk or Jeff Bezos, but you know, what are some of the misconceptions that the general public has about chartering a private jet?
Do you have to buy full aircraft to fly privately? That's a myth. Now there are multiple options to be able to enjoy to fly a consistent fleet. So you don't have to spend, say for example, the 75 million cost to buy a global 7500 to get a consistent flying experience with vista. You only have to pay for the hours you need. So it's a very easy and simple way to enter the market. And that's probably one misconception that you need to buy the entire aircraft for a multi-year period to have access.
The second one is probably the extravagance of flying privately. What we've seen in north America and europe and I think that's moving across to the Middle East and Asia as well is that the private jet is less about the caviar and the strawberries, it's more about being an efficient business tool really being your own office in the sky.
The ability to be able to fly to multiple cities in one day which is borderline impossible particularly now with the commercial routes means that you can be either more efficient with your c suite flying around the world or you can spend that extra day or extra 24 36 hours with your family members when you're on a leisure trip as well. So really what private jets give you less of an extravagant lifestyle and more about something that you can't really value.
And that's getting some time and that's really what's been seen both in the business world but also in the leisure world as well. The other one is the private jets their size and I think large aircraft is perceived as being safer. That's probably one of the big misconceptions particularly people are entering into the aviation world for the first time in the private aviation world They see a smaller aircraft which is generally the entry point for private jets and make some direct relationship to
the safety of the aircraft, which just isn't true. The ultimate thing about private jets is really that the safety standards of their, when you're flying in a commercial environment, the safety stands is exactly the same. If it's a 787 or a citation. XLs for example, the other thing I think is the safety that comes with being able to pick who you fly with, which obviously with Covid has been a big driver for our business model over the last two or three years
now and in fact maybe you could share with us, you know how you guys have grown, especially in the last two years during the pandemic and what you've kind of seen as some of the trends in this space.
Sure, well, first of all, some numbers, if we look at the Asia Pacific region were still up, the bigger trend for us is the real growth of Southeast Asia in Singapore. So we're up 46% of the region from 2019 in the first three quarters of this year and we're up 40% in Singapore alone, there's been growth in the region, but a majority of that double digit growth has come from the Southeast market.
What's been driving that first of all, private jets have had a chance to really showcase themselves over the last three years with the pandemic. A lot of commercial routes rather shut down just weren't financially viable for commercial operations. So that gave the private jet industry in particular an easy transparent business model like vista a real chance to shine over that period and you can see that growth coming through even on a pre covid level you're
looking at 40 to 45% increase in the region. So that's been one of the trends, a lot more of people flying now in a combination of business and leisure. I think that's what we're seeing more and more now individuals are buying and going to locations, taking their families with them. Also what we're seeing now is less volume of trips but more meaningful flights when
they do them. So for example, we may be in the past pre covid people would fly regularly back and forth between say Singapore and Hong kong but only stay one or two nights now, they may be flying one time a month but staying 7 to 10 days. So that's been some of the trends we're seeing. Even pre Covid, we felt that our business model as simple and transparent way of flying was already resonating with a growing number of customers in the
asian region. When you've looked at other asset light business models in different regions, different industries like transportation or hotels for example. So we've seen that trend really accelerate through the Covid period and I think that's really been the backbone to drive the numbers. I just spoke about earlier
and the other interesting bit is like as you mentioned, it's not just a high net worth individuals flying. It's more and more companies, more and more business travelers, maybe you could share with us a bit about why businesses are choosing private jets as an option. And is this going to be a direct competition to the business class and the first class cabins in the commercial jet? I'm not
sure if I see it as necessarily competition is complimentary. A lot of the routes that we're doing now, the commercial operations, scheduled airlines were doing before us, maybe we're on the edge of financial viability for the companies and that's the reason why those roots haven't come back.
That didn't make financial sense. So we can complement that by ensuring that customers and business, particularly business executives or parts of the board for example are able to go see either their customers or their manufacturing plants or satellite offices. They're able to go see them where they wouldn't be able to do without relying on the commercial markets. That's what we're seeing more and more and again, a lot of the world now is going through significant geopolitical changes.
You can see, we obviously have a war in europe, you have inflation going through the world. So now is the time to be in front of both your staff as well as your customers. The commercial travel just doesn't make that economically and really time efficient
and in a way because of the nature of the plane itself, it's smaller. So you have a situation where it's almost like bespoke travel. You can travel to smaller locations that cannot take a jumbo jet, that kind of thing. Is that also why the businesses are finding a lot more appealing? Yeah,
definitely. You get to go when you want, where you want and with whom you want, right. And that provides extra flexibility, not just from the size of aircraft or whatever it may be, but it's scheduled airline takes a risk, right. They need to know that they're going to fly this route with this payload this regularly to make it financially viable and it just hasn't been that consistent demand from the broader public to
fly those routes. So where it makes financial sense for a corporation to send their executives to a location, private jets of there to service that support. So getting back to the question earlier about is a competition. It's really complementary people who want to fly first or business to locations and they have the time and they are okay going through the main airport, there's a service for them, but really getting to those hard to reach locations. That's a
big advantage of flying privately. You get to go there, do your business and be able to leave quickly and potentially go to another Far reaching destination and do two of them in a day. We just couldn't do that commercially even in 2019. So really where the industry had a real chance to put its best foot forward and showcase what it can do and it's done extremely well doing that over the last three years and we're really proud of both the company, but also the industry as a whole.
So private jets did really well during the pandemic when the commercial aviation sector completely shut down. It's not just billionaires that are flying on private jets. The charter model is making private aviation an option for businesses to a big part of the appeal is that private jets can apply routes not served by commercial aviation and that saves time and ultimately money.
Now Ian tell us a bit about this new trend called pleasure, where clients are sort of mixing business and pleasure into one charter and how your jets are able to accommodate that because of the features and so on. Yeah, I think that
the pleasure really took off during covid, a lot of people weren't going into offices. So we get asked a lot do you do a more leisure or business and frankly, the type of clientele that we have, always combining the two regardless of where they are maybe to the charge of their family members, but that's what they, the advantage is you get to go away with your
parents and spend time with them in exotic locations. The downside is they may be on their phone or maybe doing business while they're there and having a private jet that enables you to get to a destination and get back from a destination is incredibly important. For example, you may decide to send the family to a one location, but you need to get to certain business opportunities whilst you out in that region.
You know, the ability to call upon a private jet to do that and be back to your family potentially buy dinner creates a real opportunity for you to combine that business and leisure opportunity. The other thing is obviously connectivity when you're in the air, do you have access to your colleagues, to your customer base, to the markets for example? And we've invested heavily in our wifi to ensure that our customers wherever they are around the world are still connected
doing there 456 hour flights. They want to make sure that they're in charge and that's what our cabin experience can do for them. So yeah, pleasure has been something that's continued since Covid. We're seeing more and more that we'll see more of it. Now. Private jets are perfectly placed for that pleasure trend.
What are some of the secret perks of hiring a private jet that most people don't think about? You know, I'm thinking along the lines of clearing immigration quickly, maybe traveling with your pet, maybe even smoking on an aircraft. I mean some of the secrets you can share with us
all of the above you just mentioned. Well I think the ability to go to a very easy, simple security clearance system. So you can go through either a different airport or a different entrance into a major airport. For example, you can save a huge amount of timing. This is your aircraft to take off at your time. So you're never really running late, which is a big advantage. I fly commercially a lot, constantly harassing my taxi driver to get me there quicker so I can make my flight.
So again, being in complete control when you take off, being able to fly with whom you want to fly with, I think is an important element to. A lot of people ask whether or not the price changes on the number of passengers that come on board. It doesn't, you're in complete control. It's your aircraft to fly with whom you want to. I think the ability to fly with pets has been a big driver for our business over the last decade. We have a vista pets program based around our four legged travels.
So our customers often will use a private jet for the, the experience to be able to take their beloved pets wherever they are around the world and a lot of them take them on holiday with them or they have multiple family homes and they'll take them to those destinations. So that's a big one. I think also to being able to combine your favorite restaurants and private dining experience on the ground and take that into a private jet.
I think that's one of the things often operator organize your food for you, but we go one step further and ask you where your favorite restaurant is or we can suggest to you partners we have in the locations you're going to and really taylor and experience to the way you want to eat. And again it's not all caviar and champagne. A lot of people have very specific diets and they would like to have that continued when they're flying privately as well.
So quite a lot of perks there and for those listeners who are wondering what it costs. Private jet charter flight prices start from $15,000. Now that's per hour now last question would be travelers come back in a big way. What is your forecast and your outlook for private jet travel. Yeah, I think
we're very excited about the asian region. Obviously there's been a lot more conservative approach to opening up the region compared to say for example, our north american or european friends. So that's coming across as being a real business opportunity when you consider just how much asian businesses influence the world
over the last decade. The ability for markets to open up for executives to go to their satellite offices, whether that's traveling to Asia or Asian companies traveling from Asia. I think that's the area where most excited. The covid lockdowns had an impact on travel and trade and we're looking forward to reversing that in 2023 the asian region is probably my biggest driver for growth in 2023.
Alright Ian moore thank you so much for your time and for joining us. Thanks Jonathan have a great day. So to recap private aviation really took off during the pandemic when commercial aviation shut down and this change in how people fly looks set to continue post pandemic.
You don't need to own a private jet to fly in one subscription models have expanded the access to private aviation in a private jet you can go where you want when you want and that makes it an attractive option for businesses since time is money. It's also an increasingly popular option for high net worth clients as they're able to combine business and leisure travel. So ultimately it might be less about extravagance and more
about efficiency and travel. And Asia looks set to be the big growth driver in this sector going forward and that's the five things you never knew about chartering a private jet catch money, mine on C. N. A. And online at me watch sienna dot Asia and Youtube