French Air Traffic Controllers to Strike
July 19, 2010
French Air Traffic Controllers are scheduled to strike on Wednesday of this week in protest against decisions to integrate French Air Traffic Control into a European System. Five unions representing civil aviation workers have given notice of a strike from the evening of the 20th through to the morning of the 22nd.
The DGCA which represents the unions is due to confirm actions today.
Strikes earlier this year were said to have affected up to 50% of flights at some airports.
If this action poses problems to your journey schedule call us to make alternative plans.
UK: 0800 6226 538
USA: 1 866 681 1889
World: +44 (0)20 3005 9808
Jet Booking Direct or NetJets?
July 19, 2010
Many people have heard of Netjets and when they think about private jet charter or ownership it’s one of the first names that comes to mind for many potential clients. They offer fixed price Jet Card accounts and Fractional Ownership which are both for regular users of private jets but is it the right choice?
There is no question that I write this with bias towards what we do but the facts and figures speak for themselves.
Private Jet Hire with us at Jet Booking Direct will offer you a modern fleet, an impeccable safety record, departures with three hours notice and all of the little extras that are associated with private air travel. All of this with no up-front investment, little or no positioning costs and very competitive hourly rates. Using a broker means that Jets are located on or near the departure point so you are genuinely paying for your flight time and not much more. Netjets don’t charge for positioning but after your initial investment their hourly rate is around 60-100% more than an equivalent flight on an identical jet.
Let’s look at comparing a flight profile for a regular schedule of flights from Southampton, UK to Nice, France and back again. That’s a flight time of around 1.7 hours on something like a Citation XLS. If you go for a 25 hour NetJets card you’ll be paying around £24,000 (GBP) for an overnight return so you’ll get 7 of those return flights on your jet card for £168,000.
Now, put that schedule on a Flight Account with us and you’ll pay around £13-15,000 for the same overnight return on a Citation XLS and, taking the worst case scenario, for the same 7 trips in the same type of aircraft you’ll pay a total of £105,000.
£63,000 is a lot of money to pay to have a fancy card in your wallet.
If you’re a regular traveller or even a NetJets client and you want to talk about a practical and sensible alternative give us a call and talk to us about what we can do for you.
UK: 0800 6226 538
USA: 1 866 681 1889
World: +44(0)20 3005 9808
Open Air Concert at Leeds Castle in Kent.
June 24, 2010
Why not take a helicopter to spend a summer’s evening at the Leeds Castle Open Air Classical Concert on 3rd July in theVIP marquee – with a champagne reception and a menu prepared by The Swan’s creative director Mark Sargeant.
The luxury marquee will be situated with a superb view of the concert from a private viewing area and will include a cash bar and bottles of red and white wine on each table.
What’s included?
Price: £150 per person; £1,500 per table of ten.
• Open Air Classical Concert ticket
• Private parking
• Shuttle service to/from car parks
• Luxury marquee
• Champagne reception and canapés
• 3 course menu prepared by Mark Sargeant
• Red and white wine with your meal
• Private cash bar
• Flat screen TVs
• Private concert viewing area
• Post-concert snacks
Book now by calling 0845 652 62 62 or book online.
Empty Leg Private Jet Hire Teterboro to London – Under £30k
June 23, 2010
VERY SPECIAL PRICING AVAILABLE – CALL US NOW FOR DETAILS & OPTIONS.
We have this stunning Gulfstream IV available right now for an empty leg flight from Teterboro to the UK.
This truly is a beautiful example of this fantastic plane with extremely comfortable capacity for 15 passengers or 6 passengers with sleeping arrangements.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE DATA SHEET
For an unbelievable price call us now for details and become a Jet Booking Direct VIP today.
UK: 0800 6226 538
USA: 1 866 681 1889
World: +44(0)20 3005 9808
Pictures are for representation only and may not be of the actual aircraft. For accurate aircraft details & images call us now.
Flights to South Africa for the 2010 Football World Cup Finals
June 18, 2010
Priority 1 – Safety & Security.
For those that take their personal security seriously and wish to travel to South Africa for the 2010 Football World Cup we are offering:
- Private jet charter flights to South Africa
- Personal Security Experts to meet you at the jet
- Ground Transfers
- 24 hour personal security protection
- Return secure transfers to the jet for your return flight
Whilst many changes have taken place in South Africa and the local police are very closely involved with monitoring activity in and near the stadiums, it is an unfortunate fact that robberies, personal attacks and car hijacking are still rife. South Africa remains as one of the most troubled countries in the world in regard to crime statistics. There are currently reports of allegations of robberies from player’s rooms at the team’s base camp hotels, and reports of English, Chinese and Portuguese media crews being mugged or robbed.
We have a number of aircraft available for individual and group flights to South Africa throughout the World Cup Finals. We’ll have additional aircraft on standby once we get to the knockout stages of the competition.
Call us 24/7 for details:
UK: 0800 6226 538
USA: 1 866 681 1889
World: +44(0) 20 3005 9808
Our Latest Press Release (Private Jet Hire)
June 11, 2010
We have so much news at the moment and many exciting things are happening this year. You can see our latest press release below:
Jet Booking Direct’s profits climb 41% in 2010 as jet charter comes of age.
Jet Booking Direct announced today that its business has achieved a 41% uplift in 2010 as corporate and private clients move in increasing numbers from the commercial operators to embrace the reliability, quality of service and ease of use of private jet charter. The company is seeing more people turn to private jet hire, frustrated by the lengthy security checks at traditional airports, flight cancellations due to over-regulation and the unreliability of carriers such as BA during its current industrial relations troubles.
As BA struggles to deal with its staffing problems and the UK still appears to be governed with a nanny-state mentality Jet Booking Direct has seen a sharp uplift in passenger numbers who are increasingly using private jet charter to get them where they need to be with no lengthy security delays and minimal fuss. Using a private jet means that clients can be delivered to the airport of their choice thirty minutes before departure and assured of suffering no delays.
Steve Blight, Director of Jet Booking Direct, said: “The increase in our business shows that corporates, sports personalities and leading business people are tired of being treated like suspects at all of the major airports where they are forced to spend three hours each way in lengthy security checks when the alternative of a private jet frees up almost all of that valuable time.
We provide our clients with a door to door experience managed by us at all times. They do not get any unpleasant surprises – we take care of everything. We only supply the safest jets on the charter market, are totally discrete and provide the reliability you do not get from any other travel experience. The sharp increase in our business is not solely due to the improving economic climate – it is a direct response to the personal attention we provide for all of our clients and the premium we put of safety. We only use the most up to date jets – we refuse to use ageing aircraft. As our competitors try to emulate our service and safety record we are confident that our present growth will prove that our formula is the one to beat.”
easyJet to test new Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector system
June 8, 2010
easyJet have announced that they will be the first airline to trial a new technology called AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector). This is a system which works very much like a weather radar but sees ash clouds rather than storms. This will allow pilots to change their routing to avoid these clouds and will also pass information to a ground control centre so that the information can be used to keep planes flying safely.
It’s great to see that such systems are being developed and more importantly that they are likely to be put into service. After the mass airspace closures in April this year, such technology should allow those in control of airspace to make better informed and more realistic decisions.
The mass closures have cost airlines and the travel industry millions at a time where the industry is already facing some of it’s lowest points and in future such general over-reaction must be avoided at all costs. Safety is obviously the number one concern every time a plane leaves the ground but such over-reaction should be controlled and should not be tolerated again.
AVOID should play a major role in seeing to it that this is the case.
See the announcement from easyJet here.
Volcanic Ash Cloud – Flights to & From Europe
April 19, 2010
We have aircraft available in Europe and the USA for individual or syndicate flights. We will route flights in open airspace to airports that are currently unrestricted and arrange ground, sea or helicopter transfers.
If you are desperate to travel home or even to get to your holiday or business meeting Complete the form here and we will endeavour to get you where you need to be.
Alternatively call us now:
UK-0800 6226 538 USA – 1 866 681 1889 Worldwide – +44(0)20 3005 9808
All options are subject to availability and our usual Terms and Conditions.
Volcanic Ash – Flight Update
April 19, 2010
08:00 19 April 2010
At the current time, air traffic control services are not being provided to civil aircraft in the major part of European airspace. This includes Belgium, parts of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, parts of France, most of Germany, Hungary, Ireland, northern Italy, the Netherlands, parts of Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK.
In some of these areas the upper airspace has been made available, depending on the observed and forecasted area of possible ash contamination. However, it is difficult to access this airspace as in most cases the surrounding area is not available for flights.
Southern Europe, including Spain, Portugal, the southern Balkan area, southern Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey are open and flights are taking place in these areas.
Private Jet Charter – Still the right thing to do!
January 18, 2010
So, we’re going through a period where private aviation is getting more press exposure than ever. Many say that “all press is good press” but I’m finding that I don’t necessarily agree at the moment. Users of private jets are receiving a lot of bad press and it seems that much of this has been due to the spin put on my much of the media for a story. The Executives from General Motors probably have the highest profile and recently, Sarah Palin took a bit of a battering for using a jet during her book tour.
I haven’t been to Teterboro recently but I hear that the paps have been camping out there recently snapping the passengers arriving or departing on private jets. Always looking for another name for another story.
Then there’s the “green” issues and the constant criticism of anything that uses fossil fuel. Now, these are real issues but what we read is often biased and rarely balanced and informed.
The whole “green” issue and the longevity of ours and our planet’s survival are far bigger and deeper issues than I can convey here, and if you were to address them all, properly and factually, you’d probably need the whole internet. This leads on quite nicely to allow me to share the following fact:
Globally, the use of I.T. equipment produces more carbon emissions than aviation.
Now, I’m not preaching here about what’s right or wrong, I’m just asking for a balanced and informed argument. I see a whole lot more carbon offsetting for aviation than I do for I.T. At Jet Booking Direct we will be carbon off setting all of our flights and by the end of this year we will be in “carbon credit”.
But, let’s put this all into perspective. There are many reasons for people to use private jets whether they are owned or chartered. There’s the common short list: no queues, flexible departure times, reduced security threats and lower health risks. There are also those that fly on private jets simply “because they can”, and let’s face it, if you had the means to do so you would too. You could drive to and park at a busy airport 3 hours before your flight, spend a lot of time queueing and then board a jet with a hundred or more strangers or you could get to your local airport, drive or walk straight to your waiting jet and be in the air ten minutes later.
Those that use private jet charters on a regular basis recognise the real benefits associated to these factors and how they contribute to the biggest of benefits – Time.
Particularly now that we’re in global recession, time is one of our most valuable commodities. In our global market place many people still need to travel for business and we need to look at what is most time and cost effective. Now, we’re not talking about the price of a flight ticket, it is very rare that a seat on a private jet will compare to a seat on a commercial jet but there’s a lot more to it than that.
I was recently speaking to a friend while he was at Manchester airport for a flight to Paris with two of his colleagues. Their itinerary took them from Manchester to Charles de Gaulle where they had to take a train to Strasbourg then stay over night ahead of a meeting in Strasbourg the following morning. After their meeting they took a flight back to Charles de Gaulle for a meeting in Paris the following morning. After their meeting in Paris they had a three hour wait ahead of the return flight to Manchester.
The total cost of travel was £3000 and they spent three days away from the office for around 3 hours of meetings. Based on their current rates that put an overall cost of around £8500 on these two meetings. Had they have given us a call, they could have flown directly from Manchester to Strasbourg at 8.30am meaning they’d need to get there by 8.15. They would be in Strasbourg for 11am and in their meeting by 11.30 – no queueing for bags or passport control. A nice lunch back on the jet at 2pm and they’d be in Paris for 3pm. Assuming some travel time from and to the airport and a 2 hour meeting and they’d all be safely back in Manchester by 7.30pm. All that would have cost around £8000 on a light jet and given them two more days in the office making money.
A hands down winner for productivity and a sensible decision in any business climate.