Air Charter Corporation (ACC) has revealed significant advances in the first quarter of 2002 after its inception last year. The company was started by 25-year-old Caroline Galloway and has to date co-ordinated over 30 flights. Based at Scotland’s Prestwick International Airport, the company had planned to capture the Scottish market, but now has 90 per cent of its clients based in the London area.

“We are competing directly with London brokerages, which are often much larger and more established than us. However, we are really holding our own and often we can offer lower prices due to our low overheads,” said Galloway. ACC has regularly opted to charge less in order to drum up more business and is now developing a regular client base rather than ad-hoc charters. “I think that once someone uses us they’ll come back again, because we really push the boat out for them.

“The personal touch has been missing from this industry, so we like to pride ourselves on satisfying our customers’ needs. For example, if it is a passenger’s wedding anniversary there will be a complimentary bottle of champagne waiting and we always know their preferences without having to ask onboard,” she added.

Galloway has climbed rapidly in the business since joining Corporate Jets as a 19-year-old secretary: “I managed a fleet of Learjets out of Prestwick for five years for Corporate Jets after rising through the ranks as operations manager and then commercial manager. What I found was that we were losing a number of trips, because we were trying to sell the aircraft we had rather than the one the client wanted.” After Galloway made a big impression at the airport, local businessman Bruce Thompson agreed to give the new venture financial backing over a six-month start-up period.

“The most difficult part for me was actually making the decision to leave Corporate Jets and go for it. I realised that I only needed a fax machine and a phone to start operating and then it all took off from there,” said Galloway. The company currently employs six, although apart from Galloway none of the others have past experience with business aviation. “They are mainly involved with the business development and include sales managers and web developers, dealing with customer service and marketing,” she said.

ACC offers a full range of aircraft and has recently carried out a spate of leisure flights to London, Nice and the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Marseilles. “Our personalised service lends itself to this type of operation but the business people love it as well because they can concentrate on their task in hand, while we take care of the rest,” said Galloway, adding that this approach will continue even if the company experiences significant growth: “I’d like to have dedicated teams – maybe three or four brokers with their own specific clients. I don’t want it to be so big that there are 30 or 40 brokers dealing with one person’s flight and people are not greeted on first name terms.”

Despite being on call 24 hours a day right now, Galloway hopes to take a back seat in years to come: “I realise I’m sacrificing my social life while others my age are out enjoying themselves, but I certainly think it will be worth it in the end.”