Tag: private jet

It only took one trip for George to cover his annual fee

Sign-up fees are common with private jet programs in the United States, but the concept is less common or proven in Australia. This article helps explain what it is, why we have it in place, and how it enables our value-driven occupied hourly rate.

Our Access by Airly program comes with an annual fee of $9,950 for two card holders.

For those who aren’t familiar with private, or perhaps have only chartered once or twice in the past, this can feel like quite a charge for no immediate product or service.

The reason the annual fee exists is to help smooth and flatten the fixed costs involved in operating, positioning, and making available six premium Cessna Citation Mustang jets for card holders. This enables us to deliver a consistent and low occupied hourly rate by reducing and removing unexpected operating costs caused by factors such as repositioning, holding, taxiing, and delays.

Additionally, the annual fee contributes to ensuring the highest quality service providers, operators, pilots, building an incredible team, and being able to update our platform on a regular basis.

So when real-world Access cardholder George was in the process of signing up, he also had some reservations about the annual fee. However, the fact that he was planning to fly 5-8 times a year made the cost savings compelling.

How soon did George make back his annual fee in savings?

Despite traveling mostly for business, George first utilised his Access by Airly card in taking his family to Byron Bay for a five-night holiday.

To charter, it would have cost him $20,500 return for a similar size jet.

Under Access by Airly, George paid $10,387 return, immediately saving him more than the annual fee he paid.

On average, our card holders make their annual fee back by the second or third trip – and that’s not including all the additional value the program provides outside of competitive flight pricing:

  • Six jets available to you on the east coast – no other provider can provide such coverage;
  • The most consumer-friendly booking, cancellation, and change terms;
  • No positioning fees or overnight fees; and,
  • A consistent and predictable experience

Wait, you can fit THAT in THERE?

The Cessna Citation Mustang is the program aircraft for ACCESS by Airly.

A neat, comfortable and super cost effective modern twin engine jet, for what it lacks in size it definitely makes up for in design.

When Cessna went to the drawing board back in 2002 they had a clear focus on the Mustang being that smaller family SUV.

One that could take the family to smaller airports but not restrict everyone to one piece of hand luggage each.

One of the design breakthroughs wasn’t in the cabin itself.

Found in the rear luggage compartment, Cessna specifically designed a 191cm long, rectangular tube dubbed the ‘Ski Tube’.

Connected to to the larger luggage hold, this ski tube allows passengers to take their skis, snowboards, golf clubs and even surfboards with them.

So we put the ski tube to the test. Rhys – one of our card holder’s favourite pilots sent us this video.

So this brings us back to Victoria. For those who don’t know, Victoria is part of our ACCESS by Airly program.

We transformed her A to B with the assistance of the ski tube.

Victoria would fly by private jet from Sydney to Cooma (then VIP chauffeur to the ski slopes) and was able to bring her skis saving money and plenty of hassles at the other end.

From fatigue and stress to fast and simple, transforming your A-to-B

Like any parent, we always want the best for our children. We want to keep them safe, we want them to experience as much as possible.

And for Victoria, she would make the most of every Winter by driving her daughter to the snowfields several times during the snow season.

But with school and a busy personal schedule during the week, Victoria would leave late Friday driving five hours in low light and bad weather to ensure that come Saturday morning they could maximise their time on the slopes.

The long drives took its toll, so Victoria sought to find a way to maximise the time spent on the slopes without the dangers of driving at night for long hours.

Victoria explored the option of flying by private jet to save time, and make for a stress-free trip. However, paying over $15,000 for a weekend away just didn’t make sense.

Thankfully, via social media, Victoria came across ACCESS by Airly.

Through the program, Victoria could now fly from Sydney to Cooma in 35 minutes and jump on the waiting Mercedes van to whisk her and the family to Thredbo.

ACCESS by Airly reduced the travel time from 5 hours to just 90 minutes.

The process to book was simple, the experience was seamless and the price point was also far more palatable: under $3,000 each way.

ACCESS has had a profound impact on Victoria and her family’s life.

Simple and seamless A to B at a far more reasonable price point gave Victoria her life back and alleviated her stress when it came to travel.

Airly celebrates 100 demand hours

100 hours of impacting lives

Back in June of 2021, in the midst of some pretty horrid market conditions we launched the first twenty five ACCESS cards in a stealth fashion.

We kept marketing to a minimum so those who followed us on our journey could be the first to experience the new offering.

The card program was the first of its kind in Australia, many have conceptualised and tried, but never managed to get the product operational.

In February we managed to effectively sell our initial release out, and prepare to launch the next 15 cards.

Fast forward to this morning, we had our card holder and her family arrive to some special treats and a nice chilled bottle of bubbly to celebrate our 100th demand hour.

An incredible way to start their long weekend in Tasmania.

Airly celebrates 100 demand hours

We always knew ACCESS would be impactful – either by making private more affordable, easier to consume or understand. But it’s had a far greater impact than we first thought.

We are giving our card holders their lives back.

Appreciating how much time we have given back to card holders based in Regional Victoria who can now be on location at their farm in Central Queensland within 2 hours where it used to take a full day of road and commercial travel.

Preventing a family from driving late Friday night in dangerous conditions just so the kids can experience a full weekend on the slopes.

Or getting a father back to his children in time for dinner after a day on the ‘road’. Where in the past he used to spend several days travelling to achieve the same outcome.

We aren’t about transactions, we’re about people: our card holders.

Because when you have a true understanding of what impact you have on people, it makes all of our pain and hard work in building this product worth it.

We are so proud, so grateful and so excited for what’s to come.