By Chinelo Obogo
R-L: President, Europe and Africa, Philippe Scalabrini; Senior Manager, Brand PR and Communications, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Alexandra Price and Vice President, EMEA, Amy Yang all of Vistajet, during a tour of Vistajet Challenger 605 jet at the Nesto Aviation Services Limited, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday.
Vistajet, a private jet company which operates over 300 aircraft globally, sees Nigeria as a significant market due to its central location and dynamic business climate. The company’s president for Europe and Africa, Philippe Scalabrini, at an interface with journalists in Lagos yesterday, revealed that the company experienced a 28% increase in flight hours across Africa in the past year and a 91 % increase in new membership for its programme, indicating a growing market for private aviation services.
He said the company offers “block hours” memberships instead of direct jet ownership where clients purchase a set number of flight hours (minimum 50) without the burden of managing aircraft operations. This model, he said, provides flexibility and avoids the complexities of aircraft ownership, including regulations, maintenance, and crew and clients can access a wider range of destinations through the airline’s global network, unlike point-to-point limitations of owning a single aircraft. It currently operate three Challenger 605 aircraft in the region, with plans to expand based on client demand.
“We are providing services for our clients who have the capability, that instead of buying an asset, which is very complicated and have lots of restrictions and regulations, we simply offer flight services that can do block hours. Our clients are not restricted to any issues and ours is much more efficient. This is what we have been doing in the last 20 years to ensure access to private aviation services as much as possible.
“For us, Nigeria obviously is a very important market. It is at the centre of the region, so, it’s good for us as we have always have dynamic businesses here. We have had companies use our business planes to get around the world. The size of the market is really more determined by its dynamic needs of our clients. What makes us different is that our clients don’t just like point to point. So, if there is no need to fly the aircraft back to Nigeria, our clients can go to South Africa, stay there for a week and move to Dubai and others. Our aircraft keep flying everywhere. There is no restriction for us; it is much more consistent. What we are deploying now from the region is through membership programme that have access to rest of the world. Our 300 aircraft are in flying in Europe, Asia. We are providing alternative to aircraft alternative and we are using the right aircraft for the right nation. We are using the Challenger 605 aircraft, which is efficient and it’s the right aircraft and we have three for the region. We can have 15, 20 airplanes, depending on the request and we have more airplanes that are coming in and we hope to bring in more aircraft whenever the need arises, which can be deployed to stay in the Western region.
“We have been flying in Africa for 14 years and we fly to 96 per cent of countries around the world and we know the market needs of every continent. There has been 28 per cent increase in our market in Africa between the first quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 in terms of flying hours. Our business model is different as our clients do not need to buy parts of the fleet. They can buy blocked hours of a minimum of 50 hours. When our clients are committed to usage, we only have to guarantee them the use of the aircraft. We can be informed between 24 and 48 hours. With three airplanes here, we are ready to provide them with airplanes and we can bring more from Europe and Dubai, but that would be on our cost. Our clients don’t need to bother where the airplanes are coming from.
“Our market share globally is about five per cent, with 300 airplanes and we are very confident that we have the resources to operate. Our rate is very much aligned with our model of operations. We can fly short and long hauls, including commercial. The Challenger 605 can fly for eight hours non-stop. This is the aircraft type required within Africa,” he said.