With our reliance on smartphones, we expect everything at our fingertips at any given moment—you can book a house in Paris on Airbnb, get anything you want delivered to your door via Postmates (even if it’s just frozen yogurt at midnight), and use Uber to get a lift whenever you need. Seeing this, the private jet industry has gone through a huge upswing in the past few years, moving from a luxury for the very few to something much more mainstream. Thanks to new companies that have taken the Uber approach to meeting consumer demands, you can now hail a plane just as easily as you can order takeout.
Giving a fantastic alternative to commercial airlines, app-based services have made private jet travel far more accessible in recent years, especially for those traveling in a group. Now, we’re not talking about charter companies who own their own fleet of aircraft, like NetJets—those are in a class all their own and they’ve fought their way to the top of the game. We’re talking about companies that connect you with jets available to charter (some through big-name companies) in the same way Uber connects you with drivers when you need a ride.
The next time you’re needing a literal pick-me-up, check out these four private jet app services, many with industry pros at the helm:
Beacon
For $2,000 a month (and only $1,200 extra if you want to add a family member to your account), Beacon offers its members unlimited flights in New York, the Hamptons, Boston, and Nantucket. Launched by CEO Wade Eyerly (the founder and former CEO of SurfAir) Beacon may offer small aircraft—like the Beechcraft King Air 350i and the Pilatus PC-12—but the company doesn’t actually own the planes. “Essentially, at this point, we’re a sales and services company,” Eyerly told Fortune. “We’re focused on the all-you-can-fly subscription model and delivering a very, very, high level of service.”
Not just concerned with offering top-notch concierge service in the air and in terminals, Beacon also wants to create a new sort of social networking. People sharing a private jet trip to NYC will probably find some common ground, so Eyerly is sure that flying in this way makes it easy to create new exciting relationships.
Victor
Many of these services may be pretty new to the scene, but Victor actually started over three years ago in the UK and recently expanded to the United States. Simple to use, the free app requires you input the two locations you want to fly between and it will give you all of the jets available during that window—including aircraft details, like its age. Once you find a good one, you book the charter and get an itinerary without having to leave the app. With over 7,000 aircraft spread out across 40,000 airports, Victor certainly gives its new US customers a lot of options.
According to Victor CEO and founder, Clive Jackson (who doesn’t have much experience in aviation but has tons in the luxury automotive industry), Victor is the first service of its kind to offer true transparency regarding prices and information on the actual jet you’re booking. Plus, unlike others on this list, Victor is completely free to join for the customer and they don’t ask for any upfront commitments.
Ubair
With a name that overtly references Uber, Ubair is one of the newest apps to pop up and similar to Uber, it has varying levels of service (from UbairTaxi that offers affordable prop planes to UbairHeavy that offers larger Gulfstreams). According to its recent press release, Ubair provides “instant, bookable, one-way quotes for private air travel, eliminating membership fees and deposits, and providing unparalleled flexibility.” You are able to search for flights in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean, and are able to compare up to six jets at a time.
The team behind the service boasts some pretty impressive credentials. Ubair LLC Co-founder and CEO Justin Sullivan was once the president of Private FLITE. The second co-founder, David Tait, helped write the Virgin Atlantic Airways business proposal and was, according to Ubair, the very first person Sir Richard Branson hired for the new carrier. Also on the team is marketing director Mark Greenberg, who has also worked with Virgin Atlantic, as well as JetBlue, Virgin America, and Virgin Galactic.
JetSmarter
JetSmarter launched in 2013 and now has access to over 3,000 aircraft worldwide for travelers to choose from. Not only can you search for jets based on the typical keywords, like size and departure/arrival dates, you can also create a custom travel route and then search among the best jets for your needs. A 24/7 concierge is there to help you through the app's messaging center, allowing you to chat with a real person whenever you have a question. With the option of hopping on an empty leg flight (which is free for members), JetSmarter promises to get you in the air for up to 70 percent less than a jet charter, which is a pretty big claim. Members also get access to private events, loyalty points, and will receive a 24-karat gold membership card.
JetSmarter stands out a little from the rest due to how young the CEO and founder is. 26-year-old Sergey Petrossov first got the idea back in 2009 when he had to jump through hoops to book a flight with friends. With such a youthful voice at the helm, it’s no surprise that Petrossov predicts the future of private travel will be wide open to a vast range of incomes and the industry will start seeing more college-aged people booking flights—especially those empty leg ones which can be as low as $150 to get from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
