In our Perspectives series, Business Air News discusses private aviation experiences with industry professionals. For our March edition, president of US and Asia at VistaJet Leona Qi offers some insights into positioning aircraft all over the world and the emergence of the Asia Pacific region as a global business aviation force.

“This year is our 15-year anniversary. VistaJet started in 2004 in Europe and entered the Asia Pacific market in 2008. We own and operate our entire fleet of 73 aircraft, branded silver with a red stripe. The fleet comprises all-Bombardier aircraft, from the Challenger 350 up to the Global 6000, with everything in-between. We have a subscription model for our members, who buy a certain amount of hours that they need to fly every year. Our members are global citizens around the world. They purchase the hours they need to fly with us and in return we guarantee them access and availability to our entire fleet.

“We have a pretty even distribution around the world in terms of members. The US, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East regions are all important for us. We experienced a 31 per cent increase in members globally last year, and we are performing 26 per cent more flights into the Asia Pacific region. We are really trying to keep up our double digit growth across every single front in 2019 across the different regions.

“Because of our business model, our planes don’t have a home base. We might have an Asian customer fly from Shanghai to New York, then another member travels from New York to London or Dubai, before a third customer flies from Dubai and lands in Singapore. Our increase in flights in North America last year was 46 per cent, and we also had a 105 per cent increase in new members in Europe.

“Our smallest aircraft type is the Challenger 350, and that aircraft can fly for seven hours 15 minutes. Our customers tend to fly over the water, long haul. Customers hopping between cities like Beijing and Shanghai are not so much in our market. Someone flying between Shanghai and Los Angeles every week would be our typical client.

“In 2018 we were awarded – for the third consecutive time – best operator at the Icons of Aviation Awards, with AsBAA, so we are very proud of that. We also launched the first flying programme for young flyers and we have a wine programme too. We partnered up with Christie's last year and were the headline sponsor for the Peggy and David Rockefeller global tour, which had Asian locations in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.

“If our customers are looking for short haul connections, we can reach out to a local helicopter operator for them, organising wing to wing service.

“Our Global 6000 flies 13 hours non-stop, so it literally flies everywhere and isn’t tied down to a particular location. The Challenger fleet is a little bit more regional. On any given day, I would say that we would have between eight and 10 aircraft in the Asia Pacific region. We have 20 frontline office sales staff in the region, plus all the cabin crew. We have people working shifts if we are running member services in Hong Kong.

“We don’t have any plans at the moment to buy more aircraft in 2019. Our group Vista Global Holding has options for a number of the Global 7500. That aircraft can fly 17 hours non-stop, giving it a range of 7,500 nm. Thomas Flohr and Vista Global will decide on the order split among the portfolio of companies.

“We definitely believe that the Asia Pacific business aviation market is going to grow in importance globally. Wealth creation here happens at a very fast pace, and infrastructure is being built rapidly. As we all know, the American market is the largest and the most mature, but Asia Pacific is definitely the region with the highest growth rate. We are finding that with first generation wealth, the customer often owns their aircraft then decides to sell it and starts to realise the risks, capital or otherwise, that comes with ownership. They are shifting to our model, which is a shared economy, but they are flying privately for the convenience of it.

“The region is definitely going to require more airports, as these private planes need somewhere to land. There are not currently many airports in Asia Pacific that are exclusively dedicated to private travel, and often private jets here will share the same airports as commercial aviation. That places restrictions on slots and permits for landing and handling, but the picture is changing. We have a long way to go, but infrastructure is the trend that needs to happen, and it has already started.

“We always pride ourselves on service and think ahead for our customers, always offering them interesting services, innovation and a programme that perhaps they didn’t even know they needed. We are going to be holding different events throughout the year to mark our 15-year celebrations, so it’s a happy time.”