Club Airways, the members-only scheduled flight provider, is on the verge of opening new routes between London City and Dusseldorf, and Dusseldorf and Zurich airports. The announcement comes hot on

the heels of the company’s conclusion of its capital raising by partners and investors.

EBAN’s Richard Evans caught up with founder and ceo Hans Schwab at the company’s Zurich hq to find out more about the European business aviation airline.

Said Schwab: “The idea came up in late summer 2002, sparked by comments certain business executives were making about the mediocre service of traditional airlines. We discovered that a lot of their frustration arises at times when they are out of control of the airline. Whether it’s when they’re stuck in parking lots, trying to get to a gate or stuck in a bus serviced by the airport.

“What’s more, prices of airline business class tickets have more or less remained the same, while the airlines have continued to reduce their service to a situation where it can barely be perceived as business class travel. We decided that business aviation was the only attractive solution and the idea of a club came about because it was the only way we could organise scheduled flights.”

From a business model point of view, Schwab says there were two important elements to consider. One involved the fact that it was important to be focused on efficiency and quality, and the second involved the notion that, in Schwab’s opinion at least, business aviation in Europe had never really taken off. He explained: “It’s not a very profitable endeavour and it is often perceived in a negative light. Also, it is regularly associated with Champagne and caviar, as opposed to its use as a business tool.”

It is Club Airways’ intention that in bringing business aviation to the business class traveller, it will kick-start business aviation in Europe in a way that has not been seen thus far. The company also intends to change the price structure of business aviation, by making it more affordable to businesses and their executives.

At the current time, the annual fee for individual members is EU 1,500 and for corporate membership it is EU 15,000. With individual membership, any immediate family member also has access to flights and with corporate membership, any nominated executive in a company can fly with Club Airways.

Right now, Club Airways claims its fares are typically 10 per cent higher than European business class tariffs.

“Within a year, we will be no more expensive than business class prices. That I know,” said Schwab. “Whether we can go lower or not is another matter – we’re a new concept so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Choosing which aircraft to fly with on this ‘new concept’ was not a particularly difficult decision, according to Club Airways’ ceo. And the reason it wasn’t difficult is because the main factor came down to price.

“Let’s be honest, the Citation Bravo or Citation V gives us eight seats at a lower price than a Learjet 45,” he said. “The Lear 45 would have been a lot more expensive in every way. So Citations work for us.”

Club Airways says it is now approaching the third stage of its evolution, in terms of which aircraft it deploys. The first involved the use of CitationJets or CJ1s, the second involved the deployment of aircraft such as the Citation Bravo and Hawker. And the final step is to move up to a 16-seater aircraft. But which?

“There are only three aircraft we would consider in this category,” said Schwab. “The CRJ 100/200 outfitted as a 16-seater, the Embraer Legacy and the Dornier 328JET.

“We recently carried out a test flight on a 328JET and we were extremely impressed, both with the cost benefits and the quality of

the cabin. We will need something efficient, that also offers quality

and comfort.”

The first 16-seater to arrive at the company, some time around April or May of this year, will be used on Club Airways’ Geneva-Paris route. Said Schwab: “Over the last three days, we’ve had load factors of over 85/90 per cent so this is the route that we have to find the solution for. Just adding another rotation doesn’t work because business people tend to want to leave at the same time in the morning, around 10am, and return at the same time in the afternoon, around 4.30pm.

“Our statistics are fairly linear right now, so some time soon we’ll run out of capacity. The Paris route will be the first one but hopefully we’ll run out of capacity on the other ones too.”

Schwab says his pledge to customers is that he will never go beyond 16 seats. Firstly, he alludes to the fact that certain airports impose restrictions if you bring a lot of passengers but more importantly, he says, Club Airways would be unable to offer the same quality of service if it had 20 to 30 people on its flights, trying to pass through business aviation terminals.

Since November and December of last year, Club Airways says it has signed up a number of corporations, some committing up to 40 individuals.