VistaJet: demand for business travel remains strong despite global economic uncertainties

VistaJet, the global leader in business aviation, today announced that despite global economic uncertainty, it has delivered continued growth over the past six months, and had its biggest ever quarter in the three months to June 2016. Global flight traffic was up 23% in the first six months of the year, highlighting that corporations, business leaders and entrepreneurs are actively pursuing new opportunities to build and grow.

As VistaJet now regularly serves over 90% of the globe, its flight data provides a unique insight into both business sentiment in emerging markets, and that of businesses in the world’s largest economies including the US, UK and Asia.

Despite concern about the strength of the US economy and uncertainty ahead of the Presidential elections in November, flights from the country almost doubled in the first half of 2016. VistaJet’s performance illustrates the outward-looking nature of American industry, with flights to Europe and Asia experiencing triple digit growth, and traffic to Central and South America up three-fold. Domestic flights were up 187% compared to the same period last year, demonstrating the underlying strength of the US economy. The importance of America’s West coast tech sector to its economy is clear, with flights from the area making up 20% of all traffic in the US.

While there has been much speculation about whether the recent Brexit vote will have a negative impact both on the UK economy and the country’s relationships across the world, the UK’s businesses and entrepreneurs have already started pursuing opportunities outside the EU. In particular, there were increasing signs that companies are seeking to enter new, emerging markets and attract a greater range of customers to protect their businesses from potential economic headwinds in the EU. Flights to China from the UK more than quadrupled, and flights to India were up 50%. North America is expected to continue to be a key market for UK businesses, and that was shown in stark relief in the first 6 months of the year, with flights to the US up 50% on popular routings into New York and the West Coast.

In the first half of the year, VistaJet sold its largest single package of hours in its history, a clear sign that corporations are increasingly viewing access to an entire fleet rather than ownership of one or two aircraft as a priority. With many developed markets experiencing economic headwinds, more and more businesses are taking a fiscally prudent approach to corporate travel.

The average number of annual contractual flight hours also rose in the second quarter to 120 hours per new customer. Clients increasingly compare VistaJet’s unique subscription model to ownership rather than the charter market, acknowledging that the company can offer guaranteed availability and a consistently higher quality of service than charter operators, but without any of the asset risk that comes from actually owning an aircraft.

The multinational composition of VistaJet’s customer base and business reaffirms the rationale behind its decision to move its global headquarters to Malta. With the company now flying customers all over the globe, it is more important than ever that it both has access to the EU, and is headquartered in a central, strategic location.

Our continued growth in the first half of this year demonstrates both the resilience of the VistaJet business model, and that our commitment to delivering the best possible service for our customers, in a way that makes sense in uncertain times, is clearly valued. It also shows that there is an ongoing need for business aviation, that companies will always seek to grow and pursue new opportunities and it’s just a question of finding the right, financially prudent solution to access these. That is something that VistaJet is ideally positioned to provide.

We are flying our customers to more places than ever before and had our biggest ever quarter in the three months to June 2016. We are particularly pleased to see the growth in flight traffic to India, Asia and the United States. From the trends we are seeing in the market, we expect Asia and India to play increasingly significant roles in global business going forward, particularly destinations like Shanghai, Mumbai, and Singapore, which have seen notable growth over the past 6 months.

We remain as committed as ever to serving our customers, and are confident that the passion and drive that helped us achieve our current market-leading position will continue to fuel future growth. We are taking nothing for granted, and have several exciting new initiatives scheduled for the second half of 2016.

Chairman and Founder Thomas Flohr