ETIRC Aviation and Atasay Team To Launch
Europe's First Jet Taxi Network
Turkish Business Community to Gain Productivity Advantage from Strategic Joint Venture
GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ETIRC Aviation S.a.r.l. today announced that it has signed an agreement with Atasay, a leading luxury goods company, to provide a jet taxi service for Turkey’s business travelers. The two companies will establish a joint venture which will see the purchase of 120 Eclipse 500 Very Light Jets (VLJs), with options for a further 60. The new joint venture company will be responsible for every aspect of the VLJ service business including plane management and maintenance, plane sales, scheduling, pilot recruitment and training, and customer reservations. The agreement covers Turkey, the Turkish Republics and a broad region around Turkey. All the regional operations will be managed from Turkey.
The new VLJ service will provide Turkey’s business travelers with a radical travel alternative where flights from any local airport can be booked to any other local airport in the region at costs in line with current business class travel, but at times and locations of their choosing. By avoiding the existing travel frustrations of having to travel through hub airports at scheduled times, the new service will deliver a huge productivity benefit to both individuals and the businesses they represent.
The service is expected to be operational by the end of the year with an initial small number of jets and will scale to deployment of a fleet of 120 jets or more by 2009. Passengers will be transported in VLJ planes including or similar to the Eclipse 500 that feature a high standard of comfort while benefiting from very low cost per mile through efficient fuel usage. Financing for the plane purchase and joint venture setup is confirmed but not announced at this time.
“The VLJ service is a revolution in productivity for business and Turkey has been the first to seize the opportunity that this represents,” explained Roel Pieper, Chairman of ETIRC Aviation. “The growth and ambition of this country is matched by its innovation, and the decision by Atasay to lead Europe in deploying VLJ services is proof of that.”
“For the first time in Turkish history, the economy is resilient enough and the nation is ready for a far-reaching initiative such as this,” said Cihan Kamer, “I believe that the introduction of on-demand jet taxi service in Turkey will be as revolutionary for business as the introduction of the cellphone, creating whole new micro-economies and benefiting multiple industries with new jobs and new opportunities. We’re working with ETIRC Aviation to achieve this because we have a shared vision as well as the infrastructure and the willpower to make this a reality in Turkey and a first in Europe.”
ETIRC Aviation is Europe’s first Very Light Jet (VLJ) Service Provider and has been established to provide airlines and aviation entrepreneurs with the complete white-label infrastructure required to rapidly build and deploy virtual jet networks (VJNs) and jet taxi services with a focus on Eastern Europe. The company already has substantial financing in place that enables the purchase several hundred VLJ’s.
ETIRC Aviation’s services will comprise financing and financial management of VLJ fleets, scheduling and operations systems, human resources management, aircrew training and maintenance operations. |
