National Business Aviation Association: Bombardier's
Skyjet Launches New Website
NEW ORLEANS, LA-- OCTOBER 10, 2000 - 13:15 EDT
Pioneering continues setting the standard in online charter market
Skyjet, a Washington, D.C.-based company now operating as a wholly
owned subsidiary of Bombardier Aerospace, will debut its new web
site (www.skyjet.com) to the business aviation community at the
National Business Aviation Association 53rd Annual Meeting &
Convention in New Orleans.
"The addition of Skyjet to the Bombardier business aircraft family
last June is significant; it is an exciting entry in the growing
online charter segment of the industry and signals our support to
the overall market," said Rob Gillespie, president, Bombardier
Aerospace, Business Aircraft. "It expands our involvement in
e-commerce and also exemplifies our commitment to introduce new
services that allow our customers to do more," he added.
"We firmly believe that online charter is revolutionizing the
fragmented air charter segment of the business aviation industry,
and has the potential to expand the charter market," he said.
Following the acquisition of Skyjet by Bombardier in July, the
online charter pioneer completed an extensive effort to add new
features and functionality to its site - all designed to provide
even more options and enhanced service for charter customers.
According to Skyjet founder and chief executive officer Trevor
Cornwell, the new Skyjet site underscores the company's intention
to lead the industry in technological development and customer
service in an increasingly competitive environment.
"We want to continuously raise the bar in the online charter
segment," said Mr. Cornwell. "It is our ongoing aim to create new
ways to delight our customers with superior service and provide
new features that enable them to do more," he added. Mr. Cornwell
pointed out that Skyjet pioneered development of a true, real-time
booking engine for air charter and has led the field with unique
features such as a real-time auction.
Mr. Cornwell said one of the key new benefits is an added
intelligence feature that will automatically seek travel options
that might lower the cost of a trip by routing through a different
airport in the same vicinity. The smart system automatically
searches for aircraft that are located less than 50 miles from the
selected departure airport. By selecting a "low fare" button,
customers are able to view aircraft that may be available at a
lower cost due to elimination of the repositioning fees.
Mr. Cornwell said among the features of the new Skyjet site are a
faster search engine for accurate, real-time availability; the
ability to click on a scrolling list of "last minute fares" to see
specific information about flights and fares; and new
"personalized account history" pages for travelers, travel
arrangers and charter operators. New content features on the
Skyjet site include more information about air charter travel for
new customers, and special offers and promotions. In addition,
new links on the Skyjet site include a "travel resource center"
with special partner offers and links to pages with content geared
to travelers, travel arrangers and charter operators.
An enhancement to the "search" feature - whereby the customer
enters the city or airport for departure and destination, travel
dates and number of passengers - includes a new airport finder and
a new calendar feature.
Founded in 1997, Skyjet is the world's first and only real-time
air charter reservation system for booking business jets online.
By accessing www.skyjet.com, travelers and travel arrangers can
book one-way, roundtrip and multi-leg reservations as well as bid
on trips through the myskyjet auction feature. Through a network
of 235 online charter operators, Skyjet provides access to more
than 1,300 aircraft, serving more than 5,000 North American
airports and locations around the globe. By increasing the
accessibility of air charter and promoting its numerous benefits,
Skyjet's aim is to help make business jets more accessible to more
people traveling to more locations than ever before.
Bombardier Aerospace, a unit of Bombardier Inc., is the leading
business, regional and amphibious aircraft manufacturer. With
full design and production capabilities in three countries, it
offers the most comprehensive families of turboprop and regional
jet aircraft and the widest range of business jets. It also
provides the Flexjet fractional business aircraft ownership
program, technical services, aircraft maintenance and pilot
training for business, regional airline and military customers.
Bombardier Inc., a diversified manufacturing and service company,
is a world leading manufacturer of business jets, regional
aircraft, rail transportation equipment and motorized recreational
products. It is also a provider of financial services and asset
management. The Corporation employs 56,000 people in 12 countries
in North America, Europe and Asia, and more than 90 per cent of
its revenues are generated outside Canada. Bombardier's revenues
for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2000, totalled Cdn$13.6
billion. |
