On an average day, Luton airport’s main terminal processes more than 30,000 passengers with the efficiency and warmth of an industrial abattoir. Meanwhile, just yards away at the Signature private jet terminal, First Officer Dominic Rooney arrives to shake hands with his passengers — both of us. The Nespresso machine has barely ceased chugging before he invites me to board a Citation CJ3 bound for Geneva. Minutes later, we soar above Luton.
More than 50 years after a Missouri carpenter’s son called Bill Lear ushered in a new age of fast, efficient business aviation, private jets have remained the preserve of the very wealthy. A second-hand six-seater, like the one on which I’m now eating strawberries, would cost several million pounds to buy, and much more to operate. To charter it for my return trip to Geneva could set me back £10,000 if not more. Yet, if booked via the latest app bidding to shake up the sector, my leather upholstered seat can be reserved for a fraction of that price — potentially as little as £100 each way.
That’s the offering of JetSmarter, a Florida start-up whose investors include that classic corporate alliance of the Saudi royal family and Jay Z. Sergey Petrossov, its 28-year-old founder and chief executive, started flying private himself after selling the IT company he had built from his University of Florida dorm room. Sensing an opportunity to bring new technology to the booking process, the Moscow-born entrepreneur launched JetSmarter in the US in 2013. Now, he wants to conquer Europe and has agreed to let me hitch a ride to Ebace, a business jet trade show at Geneva Airport. As many in the industry doubt his business model — a luxury Uber for the skies — he will try to convince his newest passenger that he can fly where so many others have stalled.