On the record with
JAMES HOBLYN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BOMBARDIER FLEXJET EUROPE

Bombardier has modified its Flexjet Europe program to offer what it calls the best of both charter and fractional ownership options to European travelers.

Unlike traditional fractional aircraft programs like the Flexjet service in North America, the new program, dubbed Jet Membership, requires no ownership. Customers instead commit to a minimum number of hours per year. Unlike traditional charters, they are guaranteed that an aircraft will be available in 24 hours.

Or, via a brand new "Intercontinental" option allowing customers to keep their aircraft with them on layovers, in 48 hours.

"We've been in the fractional ownership market in Europe for about two years," says James Hoblyn, London-based managing director of Bombardier Flexjet Europe. "But we realized quite early on, particularly after the last year, that there were a number of things about the model that we and our competitor had imported from the U.S. that just weren't appropriate for the European market."

Bombardier has found that although European executives like the convenience and productivity gains associated with business aviation, they are far more reluctant than their American counterparts to own, at all.

"They don't want anything to do with owning a piece of the airplane, even it it's a fraction or a lease," Hoblyn told Show News. "Having that kind of commitment that's visible on the balance sheet and open to questioning from stakeholders is something they just don't want."

Jet Membership "Premier" service, the standard, makes aircraft available for a simple fee: 4,700 euros per hour for a Learjet 31A. Under "Same Day Business" rules, by which a customer agrees to return to his starting point by 10:00 a.m. the following day, there's a 20% discount.
In addition to the Learjet 31A, Bombardier offers Learjet 45 and 60 aircraft, and the Challenger 604 to Flexjet Europe/Jet Membership customers.

The new Intercontinental option, launched just this month at the ILA show in Berlin, is similar to Premier, but entails additional fees for downtime: the equivalent of 2.5 hours flying per day for a Learjet 31A and three hours for a Learjet 60.

The essence of Jet Membership, Hoblyn says, is to provide the guaranteed availability benefits of fractional ownership without tying up capital.

"And, we've made it more affordable," he adds. "Our rates are 10 to 15% lower than they were before."

Despite the different models, Hoblyn says he sees lots of opportunity in Europe for programs based, however loosely now, on the fractional model. "I see lots of potential," he says. "The European and North American economies are the same size, yet 72% of the business aircraft fleet is in the U.S. and only 12% in Europe. I'm not going to suggest that the figures are suddenly going to be rebalance, but it's starting to change. Europeans are beginning to see the business jet as a useful productivity tool.

"If you look at deliveries," he continues, "in 1996, 10% of worldwide deliveries went to Europe. In 2001 it was 17%. The European market is beginning to catch on."