/ 26 July 2013

Corporate travellers fly solo

Luxurious interiors and the ability to have confidential meetings while  you travel have made chartered flights attractive to executives on the move.
Luxurious interiors and the ability to have confidential meetings while you travel have made chartered flights attractive to executives on the move. (Courtesy of Business Traveller magazine)

Africa’s scheduled airlines continue to show strong growth and the private air charter industry is equally upbeat, as time-pressed professionals and a burgeoning resources industry continue to drive demand for bespoke air services across Africa.

While private jets have — particularly in the austere days of the recent recession — been seen as an unnecessary extravagance, corporate travel managers are increasingly finding the judicious use of air charter as an effective way to maximise time and travel budgets.

“The cost saving for corporate travellers’ time, of not having to comply with an airline schedule and being able to move around according to their own work and meeting schedule, certainly makes charter very attractive,” says Philip du Preez, fixed wing charter manager for South Africa-based operator National Airways Corporation (NAC).

“Corporate travellers are certainly looking for value for money and many are starting to quantify some of the intangible benefits such as air and ground time savings, travel stress, productivity and the like,” says Chris Frost, business development manager for flight operations: South Africa for ExecuJet Aviation Group.

“In other words, looking at true trip costs rather than just comparing six airline tickets with a six-seat chartered aircraft.”

In addition to time saving, many destinations are simply not served — or served with irregular inconvenient timetables — by scheduled carriers, making charter all but essential.

Time saving
“Especially into territories such as central Africa, where airlines and airline schedules are restricted, corporate travellers can fly in, do business and return or fly on to their next business commitment,” says Du Preez.

“The time saving in charter versus executives’ down-time at airports waiting for a scheduled airline, is certainly one of the most important factors.”

“In today’s environment of corporate accountability, protracted airport formalities and airline route cutbacks, there are many advantages to chartering a private aircraft,” adds Jennifer Beattie, sales and marketing manager for Africa at global air charter broker Chapman Freeborn.

“These include choosing the most convenient airport, travelling at times that suit your schedule, streamlined passage through smaller private terminals, the safety and security of carefully vetted operators and crew, the privacy to conduct confidential business on-board, and a more flexible baggage allowance.”

Flexibility and convenience are key selling points of charter travel, but safety concerns are a further reason corporate travellers, particularly those arriving from the US and Europe, are opting to charter their own aircraft.

“Most European or American business travellers are very safety-conscious and will only travel on selected airlines. If their destinations are not served by those reputable airlines, the air charter businesses do benefit,” adds Frost.

Safety consideration
“For companies in the resources as well as oil and gas industries, safety is a consideration, especially within central Africa,” says Du Preez.

“Although a scheduled airline may be servicing that territory, our clients prefer the privacy, service, safety and time saving element of travelling privately.”

Safety and convenience aside, distance can also play a role when it comes to private charter and travellers are happy to pay a premium for the expediency of chartering an aircraft.

“Most business air travellers prefer non-stop flights between destinations and to arrive as close to a meeting site as possible.

“Where airline travel involves inter-lining and long waiting times at intermediate airports, chartered flights can really make travel sense,” says Frost.

“However, longer flights, typically four hours or more, require larger business jets that are significantly more expensive to charter than shorter range jets and the travel budget may not accommodate this.”

The booming resources industries are driving much of the growth in corporate air charter as deposits are discovered and developed in far-flung corners of the continent.

“Typically, it is the resource exploration sector that drives the early demand for air travel,” says Frost, adding that “all the economically developing African countries with weaker airline and road infrastructure show a definite growth in non-scheduled air services.

“Some countries that are experiencing air charter growth include Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Algeria.”

New kid on the block
The South African air charter industry is fairly competitive and it’s arguably the biggest on the African continent.

Yet, one of the newest players still felt there was a gap in the market when it launched last year.

The state of the African airline industry is cited as one of the reasons for the emergence of a host of private aviation offerings and Angel Gabriel Aeronautics applied a similar line of thinking to its entry into the market.

It’s also fairly outspoken, stating that it “adopts a unique approach to the traditionally short-sighted notion of air charter, enabling the company to bring clients the vast benefits of a charter broker combined with a charter operator”.

Further to that, it noted that its existence was “borne out of analysis of existing charter operations”, and that it offers “services that are not catered for by its competitors”.

Those services include designed tailor-made corporate packages (fly-in golf days, flying safaris), entourage services, moving cargo and air taxis to the supply of close protection officers. Time will tell if Angel Gabriel is successful, but it certainly seems intent on shaking up the South African air charter market.

This article first appeared in the July 2013 issue of Business Traveller Africa magazine, a division of Future Group. www.businesstravellerafrica.co.za

This feature has been made possible by the Mail & Guardian’s advertisers. Contents and photographs were sourced independently by the M&G’s supplements editorial team