Private jet online booking network Privatefly is looking to find £2million of investment to take it to the next stage of development and expansion overseas
Privatefly hunts £2m for US, Asia and Russia moves
Private jet online booking network Privatefly is looking to find £2million of investment to take it to the next stage of development and expansion overseas.
Former Hoseasons chief executive Richard Carrick has been brought in as non-executive chairman succeeding David Skowsill after the latter was appointed president and chief executive of the WTTC last year.
Privatefly has produced an app through which customers can find private jets, searching its database of around 3,000 suppliers worldwide.
Customers indicate where they want to fly from and to, how many are in the party, the duration of their trip and any additional services they require, such as catering.
Owners can then bid for the contract and the customer chooses which operator to go with. The entire process can take as little as half an hour.
Carrick said: “If you think about successful businesses in travel they are aggregators consolidating fragmented supply.
“We are looking for funding of around £2 million initially and to hopefully open the business up in the US, the Far East and Russia.”
The St Albans-based venture was set up by former RAF pilot Adam Twidell, chief executive, and Carol Cork, sales and marketing director.
It also has former Lastminute.com UK marketing director John Bevan as a non-executive director.
Carrick said: “I have flown private jets in my corporate life – it’s a fantastic way to travel and gets rid of the black hole of airports.”
He added Privatefly was not necessarily the preserve of the super rich and could be an option for upmarket tour operators taking small groups on trips.
The network offers every airport no matter how small and allows the owners of private jets to generate some revenue out of them when they are not using them.
“It’s more accessible than you think”, Carrick said. It most recently flew the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest from London where she lives to Dusseldorf Germany where it was hosted.
Read more on the new market for private flights in Aspire magazine, in association with Travolution’s sister publication Travel Weekly
