Business travel from US, Europe to Asia soars in 1H2016

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CORPORATE travel from the US and Europe to Asia has seen staggering growth so far this year, according to latest findings by business airliner VistaJet.

Despite global economic and political uncertainty, the company, which regularly serves over 90 per cent of the globe, reported triple digit percentage increments in flights from the US to Asia. Meanwhile, flights from the UK to China more than quadrupled and flights to India were up 50 per cent.

The strong growth is felt globally, with overall flight traffic for VistaJet up 23 per cent and passenger numbers up 20 per cent. This has resulted in the company’s sale of the largest single package of flight hours in its history.

“We are flying our customers to more places than ever before and had our biggest ever quarter in the three months to June 2016,” said VistaJet’s chairman and founder Thomas Flohr.

“We are particularly pleased to see the growth in flight traffic to India, Asia and the US. From the trends we are seeing in the market, we expect Asia and India to play increasingly significant roles in global business going forward, particularly destinations like Shanghai, Mumbai and Singapore, which have seen notable growth over the past six months.”

VistaJet added that this is an indicator that corporations are increasingly viewing access to an entire fleet rather than ownership of one or two aircraft as a priority. Even as more economic headwinds are on the horizon, businesses are not flying less, but rather, are taking a more fiscally prudent approach to corporate travel.

The average number of annual contractual flight hours rose for the airliner in the second quarter to 120 hours per new customer, according to the report, which reasoned that VistaJet’s subscription model is increasingly preferred to ownership, which carries greater financial burdens and asset risks.

Flohr commented: “Our continued growth in the first half of this year demonstrates both the resilience of the VistaJet business model, and that our commitment to delivering the best possible service for our customers, in a way that makes sense in uncertain times, is clearly valued.”

“It also shows that there is an ongoing need for business aviation, that companies will always seek to grow and pursue new opportunities and it’s just a question of finding the right, financially prudent solution to access these,” he adds.

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