Puneet Dalmia, Managing Director, Dalmia Bharat, has invested an undisclosed amount in private jet aggregator JetSetGo. Dalmia has invested the money in his personal capacity. This investment comes after Yuvraj Singh-funded YouWeCan Ventures acquired a stake in the company earlier this year.

“We will use the fresh infusion of funds to expand our technology capabilities as well as to launch our private jet shuttle service,” Kanika Tekriwal, CEO and co-founder, told BusinessLine . The company has taken over four private jets from their existing operators in a profit-share model, wherein JetSetGo will have total control over the aircraft and services and will pay a part of the profits from the operations as rent for the aircraft.

JetSetGo will soon begin a shuttle service between Mumbai and Delhi. Launched in July, the company until now offered a platform for jet operators, just like Uber does for cab owners. After running trials in Delhi-Mumbai, the company intends to offer shuttle services in other sectors as well.

Affordable trips

The company is trying to make chartered flights more affordable by offering empty legs of the flight at close to 70 per cent discount. For instance, a nine-seater jet costs about ₹30 lakh to travel to Maldives. But the empty leg on the return flight can be as low as ₹8.5 lakh, making it at par with first class ticket. The customer who paid full ₹30 lakh gets a refund of ₹ 8.5 lakh. 

“Instead of trying to make more money from selling empty legs, we are passing the benefits to our customers and thereby making luxury travel a lot cheaper,” said Sudheer Perla, co-founder, JetSetGo.

There are over 150 non-scheduled operators in the country and JetSetGo works with most of them. Non-scheduled aircraft movements are close to 15 per cent of total aircraft movements in the country. The domestic non-scheduled aviation market is pegged at $350 million with 1.4 million passengers flown in FY2014. These aircraft use more than 200 airports in India, of which, only about 30 per cent have the facility for commercial flights, making it difficult for people in those areas to fly.