NetJets: The luxury of being able to decide for yourself where and when you travel

NetJets are currently undertaking a tour of European airports to display their latest product for people who highly value their time. Flexible, time saving, private and secure, these are the main arguments for choosing a private jet instead of flying on a scheduled flight. "We have never had an accident with injuries,” says Eddie as he talks about security issues within the company. "Our pilots train three times as much as the flight authorities recommend." And their pilots have a lot to do; Last week the company made 130 flights in one day. Grafair Jet Center is located next to the normal terminal at Bromma airport and is very popular - in fact, it won an award for best corporate aviation terminal in 2014 in EMEA; Europe, Middle East and Africa, from the prestigious European Business Air News magazine. NetJets flies approximately 600 flights per year from Bromma Airport, an airport which belongs to the 20 most popular airports in Europe. From Bromma, top destinations include London, Nice Côte d'Azur, Geneva, Moscow, Palma de Mallorca, Copenhagen, Zurich. A mixture of classic business destinations along with some holiday favourites.

Bombardier Challenger 350's sofa

Who flies with Private Jet? 

Who then flies with private jets? "Our customers can be divided into three roughly equal groups; private travellers, entrepreneurs and large companies," says Eddie Pfitzner. The company offers a few different options within their European fleet of 130 aircraft. You can either buy a share in an aircraft (known as "fractional ownership") or you can buy a Private Jet Card, a card loaded with 25 hours of flight time and includes all costs. A flight attendant and exclusive food and drink options are available. "Everything is included and the price is the same if you go by yourself, with family, or business associates," continues Eddie. "You only pay for the flight time, never mind delays, waiting time, return flights, or positioning of the plane." The price is €139,000, or £110,000, for 25 hours flight time.

NetJets Pilot wings

Shorter flight times on private jets

Onboard the Bombardier Challenger 350, the pilot explains that the flight times are shorter on private business jets. "We fly higher and can often take the most direct route because of this, plus we rarely have to wait to takeoff or land as we fly to smaller airports. Effectively, flight times can be 20% shorter with NetJets." At one terminal where the Grafair Jet Center is, it is less than 50 meters from the car park, through the terminal, to the airport. The whole process takes less than ten minutes before it is time to take off. There is also a lot of value in being able to book an aircraft, at short notice, directly between points A and B where both the origin and destination are not amongst the most common routes. This can be great benefit, especially for business reasons. Eddie Pfitzner tells of a NetJets customer who lives on an island near Stockholm, and has less than four hours between the front door of his home in Sweden and his apartment in Cannes. There is also the busy businessman who got to spend an extra day in the Alps with his family thanks to NetJets' flexible flight times, as well as the family whose children were surprised that there were other people on board the plane when they flew commercially for a change.

Bombardier Challenger 350

BusinessClass.co.uk took a close look at the aircraft from the perspective of a Business Class and First Class passenger. The larger Bombardier Challenger 350 has up to ten seats, but only when three people are sitting on the couch and one on the toilet, which, by the way, is clad in leather. We have not yet had the opportunity for a test flight, but it certainly feels like seven people could fly comfortably in this aircraft. There is the option to convert the sofa into a bed, "Children sleep great here - there are several options,” said the pilot on board. The seats can also be folded into beds, but this reduces the total number of seats on board. "You can fly direct to Dubai with this aircraft," said Eddie Pfitzner, "... but only one way, on the return trip, we may be required to stopover for refuelling," he continued.

The cabin in the Bombardier Challenger 350

Embraer Phenom 300

The Embraer Phenom 300 is a light aircraft that seats up to seven people, again with a seat on the toilet. "Usually there are one or two people on board," said the captain from NetJets. With one or two people on board, there is certainly plenty of space, to that we can attest. The Embraer Phenom 300 belongs to the smallest type of aircraft in the NetJets fleet, replacing an older fleet of Cessna aircraft. Right now there are five Phenom 300 in the fleet, but more are on order from their factory in Brazil.

Responsible for the entire trip

Our impression of NetJets is extremely positive indeed. The aircraft are new and luxuriously furnished. They are definitely not on par with Emirates First Class suites with their luxury toilets, but these aircraft are designed for short trips and they offer a very desirable product. We look forward to testing "the NetJets experience" in the future, an experience which begins long before you board the aircraft and does not stop until you are sitting in your transportation and departing the airport. "Once the limo got stuck in a traffic accident and arrived 30 minutes late to the airport. Our customer remained sheltered and secure in the plane until the car arrived. This did not cost the customer anything extra, we take responsibility for the whole trip." Eddie Pfitzner proudly exclaimed.

Read more about NetJets fleet here