Air Partner’s JetCard is among the most flexible available

Air Partner’s jet card is known to be one of the most flexible in the industry. So much so that Conklin & de Decker has ranked it as the most flexible card available, beating out NetJets, VistaJet and Wheels Up in the process.

Clients buy jet cards loaded with flight-time hours. The advantage of pre-purchasing hours is that flight-hour prices are locked in at the time of buying the card.

Mark Briffa, the firm’s CEO, says that the cards have proved successful because there are no hidden fees and have fully refundable balances. Although this is unusual in the industry, the biggest reason is that, unlike other cards, the flight hours purchased from Air Partner will never expire.

“There’s no expiry date on the card. So, if you bought a card today and didn’t use it for five years, you don’t lose it. Unlike the competition’s cards ,which you have to use it within a 12-month period, otherwise you lose it, ours does not expire..” Says Briffa.

Although Air Partner receives the money up front for the card purchased, this has, in the past, created problems for the account managers, who have had to contact clients to remind them that they still have hours available.
Briffa says that the number of JetCard clients rose to more than 400 during 2017, which he, in part credits to companies that he classes as ‘business aviation disruptors’; companies including Victor and Wheels Up. Whilst these companies do not have a direct impact on Air Partner, Briffa claims that it is the general interest in the industry which helps push clients towards the company.

Overall, the company has around 400 JetCard clients, with a high percentage of them in the US. This, says Briffa, is because Europe is more about on-demand charter, an area that is also growing for the company.

The company has just come off one of its most successful years. It recently changed its fiscal year end to January 31, but for the first six months of 2017 it saw its underlying profit jump by 34.4% to $18.1 million.

This was largely due to an increase in commercial aircraft charter for the company, which jumped up by over 44%.

Air Partner recently expanded its operations into the US, and now has offices in Houston, Ft. Lauderdale, New York and Washington. It is now looking towards Asia for further expansion.