In response to the growing demand for business aircraft in Africa, charter operator, VistaJet, has made inroads into Africa’s private jet operations and restated commitment to generate more revenue from Nigeria.
The airline charter firm said it is expanding its services in the country to cater for the rising demand of private aviation services in Nigeria’s growing economy.
This also aligns with its target to increase its current 5% global share of $35 billion that private aviation generates globally as the luxury operator increases its clientele base.
The 5% of its global market share, which translates to $1.75 billion, is significant and has seen the firm increase its clientele base by 28% from the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024 as clients are flying more as it has boosted the bottom line of the company.
Vistajet’s President, Europe and Africa, Philippe Scalabrini, while speaking to the press over the weekend at the launch of the company’s first static roadshow in West Africa, with a stop in Lagos, admitted that private aviation globally was an industry that generates over $35 billion, describing it as a big industry that contributes to economic development around the world.
He said Vistajet’s extensive experience in flying across the globe, including West Africa, informed its decision to deepen the firm’s foothold in Nigeria.
He stressed that what Vistajet had been able to do in the last four years was to simplify and make access to private aviation services as seamless as possible.
He said: “Overall, worldwide, we are looking at about 5% market share with 300 aeroplanes. We are very confident for the room for growth. With our track and success for the past 20 years has been incredible and more and more clients understand the values of what we are offering them.
“If you don’t have a membership with us, we cannot guarantee you of our service and we won’t commit to offering you our service.
“For us, Nigeria is a very important market. It is at the centre of the region. It is a good hub for us as well. Over the years, we have always had a dynamic business here; a lot of our customers are companies and entrepreneurs who need to use our airplanes to get around.
“For us, the decisive market is determined by the dynamic needs of our clients. What makes us different is we fly point to point. So, there is no need to fly the aircraft back to Nigeria.
A flight could go to South Africa, stay there for a week and you fly commercially to Dubai and our planes keep flying everywhere. “There is no actual repossession cost, much more consistent, much more efficient than other corporates.
“What we are deploying now in the West African region is exactly what we are in the rest of the world. Our clients that buy into the membership programme, will have access to the rest of the world with our 300 airplanes in Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East. For us, the aviation market in Nigeria is big already.”
“To these people who own their airplanes, they are not utilising the assets enough to justify the purchase; so, we are offering a solution for someone to buy a 100 hours and use the right aircraft type instead of using long-range aircraft for one hour flight, you can use a Challenger 605 which is more efficient. If you are flying to the U.S., you use the right aircraft type as well,” he added.
Scalabrini further disclosed his firm’s modus operandi, stating that, unlike other modes of hiring jets, its clients buy a minimum of 50 bloc hours and a maximum of about 120 hours annually and provide world-class-cutting edge services to its high-end customers.
He said they remained the owners of their over 300 aeroplanes made up of Challenger 605, Bombardier luxury jets stationed all over the world.
