Opinion: Blink and it is still there

opinion
0
SHARE:

It is easy to attack very light jet air taxi operators but Blink and GlobeAir have fought hard. In fact, they deserve credit for fighting hard and may almost be ready to exit.

[nonmember]It is easy to attack very light jet air taxi operators but Blink and GlobeAir have fought hard. In fact, they deserve credit for fighting hard and may almost be ready to exit.::join::[/nonmember][ismember]

Much like easyJet and other low-cost carriers, Blink launched promising to revolutionise the industry and immediately turned existing operators and brokers or travel agents against it.

Low-cost carriers were lucky. The internet took-off allowing customers to book online (this was luck, it is worth remembering that airlines originally had telephone numbers written on aircraft) and demand grew along with Europe’s economies.

Blink and air taxi companies, however, launched into a perfect storm.

Very light jets are well suited to bankers and lawyers travelling around Europe for deals and roadshows. Unfortunately, the credit crunch and criticism of business jet usage stopped this happening. We do not need to discuss Europe’s economy.

Blink and GlobeAir have fought hard against terrible markets and they deserve credit for this. Others like JetBird failed to launch. They have learnt a lot and stimulated demand (even if it was not as much as they wanted).

In fact, if you view air taxi companies as airlines they are doing pretty well. Breakeven, in tough markets, is actually an achievement in the low-margin airline industry. Several carriers – most notably – KLM looked at launching air taxi firms.  It would be no surprise to see them acquiring existing operators.

[/ismember]

Subscribe to our free newsletter

For more opinions from Corporate Jet Investor, subscribe to our One Minute Week newsletter.

Subscribe here

SHARE: