Trend: Elevated Encounters

© Courtesy of Air Charter Service

Air Charter Service enhances its private jet offer with a series of curated experiences developed by James Wallman.

You only have to look at the number of resorts offering private transportation to get an idea of the increased interest in jet travel over the past 12 months. Eager to entice guests back through their doors, hotels have forged partnerships with private carriers to offer a personalised service that removes the stresses of Covid-era travel. These carriers are also reporting a rise in demand for their services from individual customers, with both business and leisure travellers stepping on board.

As a result, Air Charter Service is predicting a summer boom for its private jet division, forecasting a 20% year-on-year increase in new customer enquiries between June and August 2021. Having already seen an 80% rise in new the company has now ventured into the wider travel and tourism sector, launching a series of curated experiences in collaboration with author James Wallman. Developed to Wallman’s ‘time design’ concepts as featured in his best-selling book Time and How To Spend It, the soon-tobe-announced experiences tap in to the thinking that consumers can make better use of their time by adhering to a framework. “The checklist in my book is a simple way to remember the seven things that you should aim to do with your time, so that it doesn’t become junk or wasted time,” Wallman explains. Building on his first book, Stuffocation, which suggests consumers should spend money on experiences rather than ‘stuff’, the trend forecaster has brought in scientific

Elevated Encounters

enquiries in March compared with February, it suggests that chaotic travel conditions will drive more and more consumers to the private aviation sector. “What we are hearing from customers is that the lingering fear of Coronavirus infection, along with the inevitable delays at airports, is driving this surge in interest,” explains Justin Bowman, CEO of Air Charter Service. “Travellers do not feel confident that flying by scheduled service will be a smooth process, as the Covid19-related immigration requirements at airports will cause delays and additional stress. Travellers do not experience the same delays at private terminals and, as the pandemic continues to evolve, customers want to be able to fly back quickly if it looks like quarantine regulations will change.”

Air Charter Service has been in operation since 1990 and arranges more than 23,000 charter flights annually, providing commercial airliners, cargo aircraft and courier solutions in addition to its private jets. In a bid to broaden its offer, research to reinforce his philosophy. “What we’re doing through this partnership is bringing science together with art,” he continues. “We have brought the latest insight from research on how to design experiences and packaged that up in a way that we can create experiences that are more likely to lead to better outcomes – better stories, better memories, better happiness.”

Wallman concludes: “I am very excited to be working with Air Charter Service, since the benefits of private aviation align so well with my philosophies on how to spend time wisely for a happy and enriching life. The experiences will be based on the framework from Time and How To Spend It, so that after more than a year of travel restrictions, travellers who select these experiences will not only take a break from their norm, but will embark on a life-affirming journey that provides them with show-stopping memories and stories.”