VistaJet announces that it has signed a historic MOU with Beijing Airlines, the private aviation subsidiary of Air China, which is intended to lead to a long-term major partnership agreement.
The MOU, which will investigate joint marketing, sales and operational opportunities, will see VistaJet, which already flies to key Chinese destinations, establishing a formal presence in China with a base in Beijing and eventually operating point-to-point within China.
The MOU follows a significant increase in demand from Chinese entrepreneurs and businesses who have flown VistaJet internationally for the company to base aircraft within China.
“This is a historic announcement for VistaJet. We have been targeting China as a major market for expansion and our new partnership with Beijing Airlines will allow us to rapidly build a presence in this very fast growing market which epitomises the massive shift over the last decade in global trade from West to East. VistaJet is connecting entrepreneurs with their next major project, their next business partner, often in remote locations either underserved by commercial airlines or from where direct routes to other key business locations do not exist. As an entrepreneur, you cannot afford to spend up to three days flying commercially between Harbin and Khartoum. Nor are you going to want to fly on some of the airlines that will get you there. With our modern, state-of-the-art long-haul fleet, VistaJet is directly connecting locations such as East Asia with East Africa in up to a third of the time and in style. It would appear that our Chinese customers, many of whom run major global enterprises and are extremely discerning, have realised the benefits of flying VistaJet and we look forward to flying them further and more often.”
Thomas Flohr, founder and chairman, VistaJet
Following the agreement of a long-term partnership agreement, VistaJet would increase the number of aircraft available to service the Chinese market including locating a number of aircraft in the country. This would be facilitated by the rapid expansion in VistaJet’s fleet of aircraft which, following recent deliveries, is over 30-strong and which, with a $2 billion order backlog, is set to double by 2015 to over 60 mid- and large-size long range-aircraft.
Importantly, the growth in fleet will not be at the expense of maintaining the average fleet age at less than two years and with no single aircraft being more than three years old.
Ian Moore, Chief Commercial Officer of VistaJet added, “No one else in the private business aviation sector is taking delivery of brand new aircraft at the rate we are, nor is anyone more committed to maintaining the youngest fleet in the skies. It is a bold step and another example of our commitment to providing a unique customer experience.”
The Chinese agreement comes as VistaJet confirms that it is successfully implementing its broader strategic expansion across the BRINC* countries and other fast-growth developing markets including the Middle East, wider West African regions and CIS nations as it seeks to double the size of the business within four years.
These fast-growth markets are invariably underpinned by the ongoing and rapid growth in global commodity markets and the development of mining and other assets in remote locations, either underserved by commercial airlines or from where direct routes to other key commodity and natural resource market locations do not exist. Moreover, a significant proportion of commodity and natural resource companies operating in today’s markets are founder-owned which has resulted in the rapid growth of luxury aviation as well as reliable and efficient point-to-point travel.
As part of its strategic expansion program, VistaJet has identified priorities for further regional investment during 2012 including:
Thomas Flohr concluded, “A VistaJet customer said, “VistaJet is the solution I have long been looking for: the total flexibility and guaranteed availability that I had from owning my own aircraft, but without the cost; and, a consistency of service and unparalleled quality that I never expected to get from any of the charter operators. I fly 100 hours a year throughout the world and I need absolute reliability. With VistaJet, I get this and more. This agreement is an exciting development for VistaJet customers and opens up whole new possibilities for entrepreneurs like me.”
China has long been a priority market for us, especially when we saw the significant levels of demand for our services. Our growing Chinese customer base is clearly impressed with our product and we now have the opportunity to build a major presence to serve this important market. The agreement we have announced today gives us a major platform to establish a leading presence on the ground and I look forward soon to declaring VistaJet as China’s preferred luxury aviation company.”
