PrivatAir May Help More Airlines
Launch Business-Class Services

With the first scheduled flight of Lufthansa's six-day-a-week Newark-Dusseldorf service using a PrivatAir BBJ just three weeks off (on June 17), Geneva-based PrivatAir feels it's in prime position to forge more alliances with airlines, with service from Geneva or London to White Plains (New York), or perhaps to Chicago-Midway.

"We needed a larger partner and now that we've achieved that the floodgates are open," says PrivatAir CEO Dave Hurley. "We do not know how to sell tickets or provide the back-room services that support a ticket-selling airline," he explains. That's why his company has linked up with Lufthansa and is looking for more such partnerships to help keep its aircraft busy.

 

PrivatAir CEO David Hurley is looking for airline business.

PrivatAir has invested some $300 million in Boeing aircraft, incl- uding an extended-range 737-300 it says was actually the first Boeing business jet, three aircraft bought as Boeing Business Jets, and a 757 furnished throughout with executive seating.

PrivatAir figures that the new Lufthansa service will shave three and a half hours off the time it takes to get from Dusseldorf to a New York airport via the conventional connection in Frankfurt. And the use of a 48-passenger aircraft will cut an additional half hour in boarding and deplaning times at either end, even using commercial terminals. "The hassle is taken away," says Geneva-based corporate shuttle marketing vp Paul DeSalis.

U.S. airlines are among the carriers being courted for further city-pair service using PrivatAir's Boeing aircraft, he says.

On the whole, PrivatAir operates some 50 aircraft, from Learjets up to its 757. Charter accounts for about 65% of company business, Hurley says, and has picked up quite respectably following a dismal fourth quarter.

PrivatAir also now encompasses the Transair FBO at Paris-Le Bourget and Connecticut's Flight Services Group, which was founded by Dave Hurley in 1984. Both came into the PrivatAir fold in March 2001.

PrivatAir is working too to enhance its deluxe vacation travel offerings including special golfing trips and other premium excursions via the Kuoni Travel Group's Intrav, with which PrivatAir has a three-year market pact.

Elsewhere, "aircraft sales have been fairly brisk," Hurley reports, particularly for mid-size jets. The firm has notched about a dozen sales since January, including Citation jets and Bombardier's Learjet 60 and Challenger, with the Learjet 60 the best seller. All were in the U.S.

Will PrivatAir itself be looking to buy more aircraft now that Lufthansa's Newark-Dusseldorf run is occupying one of its five Boeings? "We fully anticipate that we will continue to buy," Hurley says. "We certainly are in a position financially," he told Show News, "to buy more large-body executive aircraft."

By Rich Piellisch