“We are the top,” Shane O’Hare, president and CEO of Royal Jet, says as he sits alongside the company’s $12m newly-refurbished Boeing Business Jet. “Nobody can deliver the service, luxury, and safety standards to the level that Royal Jet does, and I can guarantee that,” he says confidently.
The company may claim to have risen to the pinnacle of the luxury charter scene, but Royal Jet started with just one aircraft 10 years ago.
The fleet now has nine aircrafts in operation – including six Boeing Business Jets – which makes them the largest operator in the world of this aircraft type by the US manufacturer, with goals to expand their fleet to a total of 12 aircrafts.
“They are the largest aircraft type in the world. That’s helped make us famous… In terms of service delivery, service excellence, understanding of the customer base and how to do things, there’s nobody that does it better than us. I know this may sound arrogant, but I think that you will find that most of our competitors and most of the industry would agree with me,” O’Hare states.
Royal Jet’s core business is the charter business, which represents about 80 percent of their target revenue. They also have a robust VIP fixed-base operator (FBO) business, with a VIP terminal in Abu Dhabi and a newly opened base at Seychelles, which is the only fully fledged FBO in the Indian Ocean.
In addition, the company launched a luxury vacation service this year, in partnership with UAE national carrier Etihad Airways and intends to grow it strongly this year.
An additional 22 percent of their charter business currently comes from medivac operations, where they carry, on average, one patient daily to Europe or the United States.
“From zero base, we’ve become the largest private jet company in the Middle East in ten short years. If you look at the government and the ruling family, we would probably hold about 60 to 70percent of that market. We hold 80 percent of the Medivac operations in the UAE. Corporate is probably somewhere around 11 to 12 percent,” says O’Hare.
After completing a year of flying to over 320 airports in 135 countries through an estimated 2,500 flights, the company announced that it will completely renew its fleet by the year 2020, which will reach a total value of $700 million at current list prices. Meanwhile, it will implement the $12 million refurbishment on all its Boeing Business Jets which includes a brand new livery.
With an average growth in revenue of seven percent year-on-year since its inception, Royal Jet is certainly showing no signs of slowing down. “Our chairman, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, is absolutely focused on ensuring that Royal Jet maintains the highest standards. So that’s what we’ve done and will continue to do. We’ve been very successful, and that’s what differentiates us,” O’Hare states.
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“We’re seeing strong growth in demand in this region. The GDP growth is quite high, with average growth rates of about six percent. We have a very strong and growing economy. Geographically, the Middle East, or the Gulf region particularly, is becoming the central hub, globally, for international air travel,” he adds.
Royal Jet is not the only private charter company that is realising the potential of this region; a surge of international and local players have been emerging on the market and focusing more on opportunities here as the older developed markets in Europe begin to stagnate.
“Partially, this is driven by Europe and the US as well where the private jet segment is pretty well flat right now and we are seeing some of our European competitors looking for business in this part of the world,” he states.
“There are obviously a lot of high net worth individuals in the region, so that will provide the growth for the private jet industry. You will see a lot of competitors come in but only the strong ones survive or merge together, while the week ones tend to fall off and then there’s a gradual maturing,” says O’Hare.
But competition does not phase the confident CEO: “Competition is good. Competition is absolutely vital to ensure that everybody maintains high standards. It’s good for the customer. We need good quality, solid operators, not poor illegal operators, which we already have around, but hopefully they won’t be around for very long.
“We have ourselves, Royal Jet, in Abu Dhabi, we have Qatar Executive in Doha and we have Saudi Private Aviation based up in Jeddah, and Emirates now has a private jet aircraft. Obviously they are all competitors to us, but we also work together. We all see this as good for the industry, good for our customers, because it’s providing a stronger quality of service across the board,” he believes.
Currently, 60 percent of Royal Jet’s business comes from Middle East countries, particularly the Gulf, and the rest is global demand. The rack rate for the A6-AIN Boeing Business Jet is about $18,000, but then you have to add other factors such as minimum fuel and fuel surcharges, waiting time if you need the aircraft to be with you all the time and then of course all the other add-ons depending on each trip and the level of customisation required.
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