Press Release

Issued by FXAir.

March 1, 2010

Online private jet platform, PrivateFly.com, continues to go from strength to strength after winning two business awards last month. 

The awards are Smarta's Top 100 small businesses for 2010, and the Best Business Awards, in which PrivateFly was announced as winner of the 'Best Innovation' category. Each of the awards recognise the company's innovative approach to the private jet booking process.

The Smarta 100 recognises the UK's smartest small businesses that have gone the extra mile to differentiate themselves from others in their market or found clever ways to compete. PrivateFly.com was chosen as a winner of the inaugural 'Smarta 100' by a judging panel including Dragon's Den's Deborah Meaden and other leading entrepreneurs, such as Bebo founder Michael Birch. The judges commented:

"PrivateFly looks set to change the way the industry operates. It gives consumers much better deals and more transparency. It also simplifies the technical issues that are involved in scheduling private jets."

The Best Business Awards attract entries from across all sectors, from large international PLCs and public sector organisations, to dynamic and innovative SMEs. PrivateFly.com was the only travel company to win across all categories. Commenting on the win, chairman of the judges Andrew Areoff said:

"The way the founders of PrivateFly have identified and exploited the niche market for private jet charter is admirable. This well thought through and executed proposition should establish itself as the market-leading brand in the sector as it continues to grow and develop and as customer budget restrictions ease as we move out of recessionary times."

Carol Cork, PrivateFly's sales & marketing director, added: "We were especially pleased that both of these awards recognise the team's innovation, as this is the cornerstone of our business strategy.

"As PrivateFly continues to evolve, we are looking at new ways of streamlining the process of booking a private jet - such as our recent iPhone application which provides private jet pricing to a mobile phone. Customer choice and transparency have been transformed by the internet in nearly all other markets, PrivateFly aims to bring the same online efficiency to private jets."

PrivateFly.com is an online booking network for private jet charter, bringing together private jet customers with registered charter jet operators. The service is a free marketing network for operators and allows them to market their aircraft to a larger number of customers globally. The bespoke software streamlines the quoting process, so the end customer receives operator quotes instantly and can compare their options transparently.