MEBA2012: new 'Air Club' alliance announced

They hope it will enable them to leverage some of the advantages that similar airline alliances demonstrated a decade ago.

 

The companies involved are ACM Air Charter and Air Hamburg from Germany, Air Alsie from Denmark, Corporatejets from Spain, FlyingGROUP from Belgium, Austria’s Globe Air, Master Jet from France and Switzerland’s PrivatAir.

 

Together, the eight companies manage a fleet of 106 business jets in Europe, ranging from Boeing BBJs and Airbus Corporate Jets down to Globe Air’s 11 four-seat Citation Mustangs.

 

The new group will be able to offer a wide variety of aircraft configurations and will represent 90% of the European fleet of Falcon 7Xs for example, with seven different aircraft available.

 

There will be an online booking system, which PrivatAir’s Christian Hatje hopes will make booking an aircraft “as easy as hiring a car”.

 

This will be operational from next year and, thereafter, the group will begin working towards joint procurement and joint safety training, among other activities, though the member companies will retain their individual identities and characters, and the Air Club will never become a ‘mass carrier’.

 

The eight companies represent the founding members of the group but growth is anticipated and welcomed. “We are sending out a signal for the Middle East to see,” Hatje observed, noting that there were already a number of potential partners in the Middle East.