Flying a chartered aircraft is set to turn a lot more affordable as private jet aggregator JetSetGo is all set to launch its shuttle service between Mumbai and Delhi.
Launched in July, the Uber for private jet JetSetGo has received a fresh round of funding from Puneet Dalmia, Managing Director of Dalmia Bharat, in his personal capacity as the company looks to get aircraft directly under its operations to launch shuttle services. This investment comes after the Yuvraj Singh-funded YouWeCan Ventures acquired a stake in the company earlier this year.
Dalmia said, “A business is distinguished by customer experience, responsiveness and consistency in services. These qualities create a strategic advantage. JetSetGo delivers on this promise. Considering the intrinsic value of the company and the potential of this sector, I have reposed my faith in them.”
The new shuttle service will be priced at a par with business-class fare. “We'll use the fresh infusion of funds to expand our technology capabilities as well as to launch private jet shuttle services,” Kanika Tekriwal, the CEO and Co-founder, told
The company has taken over the operation of four private jets from their operators in a profit-share model, wherein JetSetGo will have total control over the aircrafts and services and will pay a part of the profit from the operations as the rent for the aircrafts. After running trials with Delhi-Mumbai, the company intends to offer shuttle services in other sectors as well.
“The biggest problem the industry suffers from is that there are a lot of last-minute cancellation of aircrafts. One out of five flights are cancelled at the last minute because of various issues regarding pilots falling sick, lack of availability of spare parts, etc. By having control over the aircraft, we'll maintain a back-up aircraft so the customer is not affected,” Tekriwal said.
The company is also trying to make chartered flights more affordable by offering empty legs of the flight at close to 70 per cent discount. For example, a nine-seater jet costs about Rs 30 lakh to travel to the Maldives. But the empty leg on the return flight can be as low as Rs 8.5 lakh, putting it on a par with a first-class ticket. In this case, the customer who paid the full Rs 30 lakh gets a refund of Rs 8.5 lakh.
“Instead of trying to make more money from selling empty legs, we are passing on the benefit to our customers and, thereby, making luxury travel a lot more cheaper,” said Sudheer Perla, Co-founder of JetSetGo.
There are over 150 non-scheduled operators in the country and JetSetGo works with almost all of them. Non-scheduled aircraft movements account for close to 15 per cent of the total aircraft movements in the country. The domestic non-scheduled aviation market is touted at $350 million with 1.4 million passengers flown in FY 2014. These aircraft use more than 200 airports in India of which only about 30 per cent have the facility for commercial flights, making it difficult for people in those areas to fly otherwise.