The Hindu Business Line : Tatas in tie-up for business jet venture

New Delhi, Feb. 19 The skies over India are set to get more crowded with BJETS, a tie-up in which the Tata group is a significant investor, ordering 50 brand new business jets worth over $600 million or about Rs 2,400 crore.

These Cessna Citation CJ2 Hawker 850/900 XP will allow corporate flyers, small and medium enterprises, Indian and global multi national companies to pack in more in a day’s work.

“Globally, India has the second largest number of billionaires, but the business jet aircraft market is completely underserved. These aircraft will allow people to finish three business meetings in a day and also be home for dinner with the family.

“A company having work in Jamshedpur can complete the business and be back in Mumbai for a full day’s work. Similarly, these aircraft can cut the travel time between Singapore and Djakarta by around two hours,” said the Chief Executive Officer, BJETS, Mr Mark Baier.

The other promoter in the project is the Briley Group, a privately held multinational company with holdings in the aviation, hospitality, business process outsourcing, and technology and service sectors, valued in excess of $2 billion.

The Cessna Citation CJ2 will allow 5-6 passengers to fly 1,250 nauticals miles, while the Hawker will cover a maximum distance of 2,600 nautical miles with up to eight passengers.

“We hope to do business worth about $500-600 million in the next few years. We are still working on our exact pricing on how much each flight will cost a customer,” Mr Baier added.

BJETS, which is to become operational by the middle of the year, will be headquartered in Mumbai with the entire flight operations centre being based out of the new airport in Hyderabad which becomes operational next month.

In addition, Club 1 Air, announced the acquisition of 10 Very Light Jets which will make it possible for people from the upper middle class and company senior management to also use these machine for hopping around the globe. The new venture is to be operational by the third quarter of the year.

Already a number of companies including those promoted by the Jindals, Thapars, Raymond and Oberoi group offer aircraft for charter which allow passengers the flexibility of travel.

More Stories on : Alliances & Joint Ventures | Airlines

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Lufthansa adds more flights from India

Hartal partially hits Kochi port operations

FKCCI team visits New Mangalore Port

Waiting for Lalu’s magic

Sterling Infotech Group co acquires J.B. Ugland Shipping for Rs 1,200 cr

‘Fill up vacancies at major ports’

Tatas in tie-up for business jet venture

State road funding to get Rs 2,300-cr boost

Tulsi Mirchandaney is Blue Dart Aviation’s new MD