EBACE Show News - May 20, 2008 - (Page 74) EBACE 2008 Blink to Deploy 45 Mustangs as Air Taxis “Imagine a world where you blink and you’re there.” This is the slogan of Europe’s first VLJ air taxi company, Blink Ltd, which, if you’ll excuse the pun, has its eyes firmly focused on what could be an extremely lucrative market. London-based, it is fielding the first of its 45 Citation Mustangs here at Geneva, with its inaugural revenue flight scheduled in a few weeks’ time. Blink is offering its Mustangs as two-pilot, four-passenger, ‘minijet shuttles’ to Europe-based corporations requiring regular uplift. According to Blink, its customer list covers companies from the UK’s top FTSE 100 down to small firms employing as few as six to 20 people. Once the fleet reaches critical mass the company plans to add ad hoc air taxi operations. Blink is the brainchild of American Peter Leiman and the UK’s American Peter Leiman and British Cameron Ogden have raised some $30 million from private investors for Blink. craft) to look over its operations, with a brief to save money and improve efficiencies. “We saw the VLJ as a disruptive technology that would change the way people traveled,” said managing director Peter Leiman. “The ques- “The question was, if Wal-Mart were to buy and integrate a sub-fleet of VLJs, could they save money and make their employees more productive? We demonstrated they could save 25% on their existing travel budget, and even afford to fly employees earning less than $50,000 per annum on the aircraft.” —Peter Leiman, managing director, Blink Ltd Cameron Ogden, who met at Harvard Business School. They have already raised $30 million from private investors. The pair was asked by Wal-Mart (which has the largest corporate fleet in the world with 28 Bombardier air- tion was, if Wal-Mart were to buy and integrate a sub-fleet of VLJs, could they save money and make their employees more productive? We demonstrated they could save 25% on their existing travel budget, and even afford to fly employees earning less than $50,000 per annum on the aircraft.” This led Leiman and Ogden to form Blink as a regionally operated network-based air taxi service, which will evolve and stretch across Europe, guided by its regular client requirements. The Mustang fleet will be operated by TAG Aviation (UK) Ltd at Farnborough under its Air Operator’s Certificate. “We like Farnborough as it is at the heart of our customer base, and we will build up the network depending on where our corporate customers need to fly,” Leiman told Show News. “Blink is a tool for business travelers who are frustrated with the high cost and inefficient scheduling of airlines which make multipledestination business trips difficult, and in some cases impossible. We are half the price of the light jet market today and very competitive with Club Europe fares on British Airways. We’re not charging per hour, we are Blink’s many Mustangs will be the backbone of a regional, network-based air taxi service operated by TAG Aviation. quoting per aircraft and not subdividing the airplane, so this simplifies the operation. If you book 21 days out, you’ll get a much lower fare than if you book the day before you fly— just like the low-cost airlines. “This is purely illustrative and doesn’t say anything about our customer base. But just take a company like Dell, which has a European headquarters at Bracknell, ten minutes from Farnborough. They have facilities in Montpellier, France. “There are no direct flights between London and Montpellier. A roundtrip takes three days by scheduled airlines. We would come in virtually as a corporate shuttle and would offer two return trips a day if required.” Like the low-cost airlines, high aircraft utilization is at the center of Blink’s business plan, which calls for around 1,000 flight hours per Mustang, per year, rather than 400600 hours per year currently flown by today’s light jets. This will be achieved by minimizing and shortening the length of deadheads by having ‘A’ bases (with some infrastructure) and ‘B’ bases (without any regular infrastructure) across sub-regions of Europe. This way it intends to maintain a low-cost structure and improve aircraft availability by flying shorter deadheads within these sub-regions. Blink representatives can be contacted at their aircraft in the EBACE static aircraft park. —Mike Vines 74 May 20, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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