Against a background of strong demand for business travel
across Europe, Russia stands out as a particularly high-performing market.
Charter usage among an extremely wealthy client set is growing, with particular
emphasis on the larger, more luxurious aircraft types. One company profiting
from this surge is Skyjet International, whose managing director, Judith
Moreton, had some special comments for Show News on the Russian side of her
business.
"Right now Bombardier is the leader in the large aircraft
sector of that market. We have 16 Global Expresses, plus another 16
Challengers, in Russia. The customer base there is very different from the rest
of Europe, but it's booming— with business aviation becoming more and more
important. Russian clients have become extremely knowledgeable extremely
quickly— they have very particular needs and no cost considerations. They know
exactly what they want and need in terms of service standards and aircraft
capability. They are not so interested in company 'product'— they give you their
own list of requirements, and that's all they want.
"Our Russian customers are doing a huge amount of traveling
to the rest of Europe. London and Paris are very strong as destinations— these
are the places where customers are making new business investments or buying
property. Equally, we are finding Western European companies and individuals
investing in Eastern Europe, even just buying holiday homes there. It's going
to be great when the rest of Eastern Europe catches up and gets into this market."
