LunaJets

LunaJets

Industry	Air Charter Transportation
Founded	Geneva, Switzerland (2007)
Founder	Eymeric Segard
Headquarters	Geneva, Switzerland
Area served	Worldwide
Services	Private Jet Charter, Transportation
Number of employees	22 (2015)
Website	www.lunajets.com

LunaJets is a privately owned, low-cost private jet broker with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, where it has been based since it was founded in 2007 by former Ogilvy advertiser Eymeric Segard.

Being an online broker, the company does not own any aircraft, but rather matches countless operators and private jet owners with end user private jet clients to provide on-demand and empty leg flight services. LunaJets, therefore, has access to all categories of aircraft, both turboprop and jet-powered, ranging in size from Very Light Jets, such as the Cessna Citation Mustang, to VIP Airliners, such as Boeing Business Jets (BBJs) and Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJs).

History

LunaJets was founded in December 2007 by Eymeric Segard, the company’s acting CEO, after raising $US2million from private investors. The initial concept was to create an online platform to provide “empty leg flights” and last minute “empty seats” on private planes flying empty at a discount from market price.^[1][2][3] ‘Empty legs’, also called in the industry as “deadhead,” “positioning, “or “ferry flights,” are planes flying without any passengers due to the need to reposition or return to their home base, among other reasons. They can be available at a discount of up to 75% of regular prices. At the time, entrepreneur Richard Branson launched a similar concept named “Virgin Charter”^[4] with entrepreneur Scott Duffy but, for Lunajets, the concept of jet sharing and the resale of private jet seats did not work. Virgin Charter, who at the time employed 100 people, stopped its operation in 2009 when private jet charter dropped dramatically due to the financial crisis. In 2010, LunaJets rebranded itself as a low-cost provider of private flights under the “fly private at the best price” slogan, offering on-demand charter flights and empty legs.^[5][6]

In 2013, Lunajets had become the largest and leading independent private jet brokers on the Swiss market and in continental Europe with an annual growth of 40%.^[7] In October 2014, Lunajets launched the third version of its website. In May 2015, LunaJets introduced the first version of their mobile application (available on iOS, RiM and Android) presented by CNBC as the UBER of private aviation .^[8] As of 2015, LunaJets opened a regional office inside the Private Jet Terminal in Olbia, Italy.

The company has brought together a highly experienced team of 22 travel experts who speak a total of 10 different languages.

Operations

LunaJets works on the premise that access to the entire market enables it to find the best prices for its clients, both private and corporate, as its online platform and team of brokers are able to place operators and owners into honest competition with one another. Consequently, it is considerably less expensive to pay for individual private jet flights than it is to buy a block of flight time, for example a 25-hour card or fractional ownership, as this denies the client the opportunity to take advantage of market inefficiencies.

Fleet

With access to a global network of over 4,800^[9] recent aircraft, Lunajets offers flights on virtually all private aircraft categories: Turboprops, Very Light Jets,^[10] Light Jets, Super Light Jets, Midsize Jets, Super Midsize Jets, Large Jets, Super Large Jets, Long Range Jets and VIP Airliners.

Partnerships and charity

Since 2011, LunaJets has been the official sponsor of the Aleph sailing team^[11] and 2 times vice Match Race world champion Mathieu Richard. Mathieu Richard and his crew compete for LunaJets in the RC44 World Championships and the Alpari World Match Racing Tour where Lunajets’ ended up the 2014-2015 season in third position.^[12] In 2014 Lunajets became a partner of Womanity foundation.

References