Press Release

Issued by FXAir.

June 1, 2010

A recent survey[1] of private jet charter operators by PrivateFly.com, the online marketing network, highlights the major opportunities for the private jet industry as it begins to recover from the economic downturn. Almost half (45 percent) of operators who responded agreed that the global recession has been their single biggest challenge to date.

But ironically, for an industry that delivers business efficiency for its customers, the private charter market as a whole is remarkably inefficient. Nearly all (98 percent) recognised that the internet was beginning to make the industry more efficient, but the wider results do indicate that there is still a significant opportunity to improve efficiency.

"The charter industry is still highly fragmented and operates predominantly offline, from a customer point of view. There's an exciting opportunity to bring both customer transparency and online efficiency to this market, reflecting how the wider travel industry has been transformed in the last ten years" said Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly.

The survey also revealed the following:

FLYING EMPTY

·Three quarters (74% percent) of operators say that over a third (30-40%) of their flights are empty sectors.

SALES CONVERSION

·Nearly two-thirds of operators (61 percent) prepare 20 or more quotes for every charter sale with almost a quarter, (22 percent) saying that they prepare 40+ quotes per booking.

COST CONSCIOUSNESS

·69 percent of operators believe price competitiveness is the single biggest factor in winning charter business – above speed of returning a quote (17 percent) and their safety record (7 percent).

MARKETING MIX

·Recommendation is unsurprisingly top of the list, with 83 percent relying on word of mouth. But 50 percent of operators now use search engine optimisation as part of their marketing efforts, while social media sites are used by 22 percent. Over half of operators (52 percent) agreed that showing 360 degree imagery of aircraft on their websites would improve sales.

MALE DOMINATION

·On average, operators said that 68 percent of private jet passengers were male, with a slightly lower male majority making the bookings (63 percent).

Commenting on the results, Twidell continued: "While the majority of operators see price competitiveness as the biggest decision driver for private jet customers, they themselves feel strongly that customer service and safety are paramount. But there are clearly areas of industry-wide inefficiency – and therefore the opportunity for cost savings for both operators and customers"

Twidell recognises that there will always be a need for exceptional VIP customer service and industry expertise, but he believes that these elements can be combined with online efficiencies that benefit both sides, matching up customer demand with operator supply.

"There are exciting industry challenges and many innovations are already under way to tackle them. This survey gave us invaluable feedback about PrivateFly's usability and improvements we need to make. We are continuing to invest in our software to make it quicker and easier for operators to submit quotes to customers. We are also developing more efficient search tools and 360 degree imagery, so operators can market their aircraft more broadly and effectively".

The full survey results are published at http://www.privatefly.com/private-jet-charter-survey-2010.html

[1] 132 responses to a global operator survey conducted in April 2010. A donation was made to the Haiti Earthquake Appeal for each completed response.