Jet firms take to European skies
The private jet industry in the UK is picking up speed with new firms set to enter the market later this year.
Jet financing firm Global Jet Capital and self styled Airbnb of the private jet market Stellar Labs will both launch in the UK in 2016 aiming to capitalise on growing demand for chartered jets.
The UK has the second largest fleet of private aircraft in Europe after Germany and there are around 264 mid, heavy and jet airliners according to Global Jet Capital, with almost a third of these thought to have been bought between 2010 and 2014.
Stellar Labs has valued the UK private jet charter market at around £254m a year and is gearing up for launch in the UK after raising $8.6m (£5.5m) in seed funding last November.
Stellar opened for business in the US earlier in the year, trying to digitalise the traditional private jet process.
“The UK and wider global private jet market is heavily paper based, very manual and laborious and its charter quoting process is error prone. It is a relic, inefficient and friction-filled market,” said Paul Touw, chief executive of Stellar Labs.