Leading private jet specialist, Air Charter Service,
has said that in the first half of its financial year the company saw an
increase in private jet bookings from its UK office of 8%. This is compared to
industry-wide WingX statistics showing that private jet flights into and out of
the UK were down by 5.4% over the same six months.
Andy Christie, Air Charter Service’s Global Director of Private Jets, said: “We
had a very good first half of the year, considering the market is in decline,
with more than 1,300 private jet charter flights arranged just from our London
HQ over the six month period. The increase of 8% is even more impressive when
you take into consideration WingX’s figures for the UK and when compared to the
worldwide industry as a whole, which has grown by just 2%.
“It may seem somewhat surprising that the team is doing so well, as the
economic and political situation in the UK at the moment has led to cuts in
spending in many sectors whilst the country waits to find out what will happen
with Brexit. As opposed to the increase being due to a buoyant market, it
appears that we are simply gaining substantial market share.
“Our revenue from private jet sales across all 25 of our worldwide offices saw
a similar increase, with ACS’s global revenue across all markets in the six
months to the end of July totalling £247.3million
($300m). Our new offices in the US – San
Francisco and Atlanta – have both had great starts to the year and are ahead of
expectations. All of our offices in the APAC region are also outperforming last
year and our new operation in Shanghai is doing well in its first year.”
Christie concluded: “We are hoping that the UK will stabilise a little after
October 31st, increasing the amount of private jet traffic into and
out of the UK. In the meantime we are pleased to have grown market share and we
are confident that the global upward trend for both ACS and the industry as a
whole will continue into the second half of the year.”
www.aircharter.co.uk
~ENDS~
About Air Charter Service
Air
Charter Service is a global aircraft charter broker with 25 worldwide offices, spanning all six major continents and we offer private
jet, commercial airliner and cargo aircraft charters, as well as onboard
courier solutions. We arrange more than 16,000 contracts annually with revenue
of close to 700 million dollars. We were formed in 1990 by Chairman Chris Leach
and CEO Justin Bowman in the basement of a house, and we now employ more than
500 staff worldwide.
For more information, an interview or
additional images please contact:
Glenn Phillips / PR & Advertising Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8339 8593 /+44 (0) 7799 692 629
Email: glenn.phillips@aircharterservice.com
