What are empty flights in private aviation?

Before we delve into the details, it's important to understand what empty legs actually mean in private aviation. Empty legs occur when an aircraft flies between two destinations with no passengers on board. This can happen for a variety of reasons including:

Positioning: The aircraft must be moved to a specific location to pick up a customer at the desired departure location.

Repatriation: After a customer flight, the aircraft must return to its home airport in order to be ready for further operations.

Maintenance Flights: Regular maintenance sometimes requires an aircraft to be moved to a specialized shipyard.

Unexpected changes in plans: Weather conditions, personal customer requests or other unforeseeable circumstances can result in an aircraft having to fly without passengers.

These empty flights are often considered inefficient because they consume resources such as fuel and time without directly contributing to revenue generation. But from Blissair's perspective, empty flights are much more than just a perceived waste of resources.

The benefits of selling empty flights from Blissair's perspective

Revenue Generation: The most obvious benefit of selling empty legs for Blissair is the ability to generate additional revenue. Instead of letting a plane fly empty, empty flights can be sold to customers who want to travel at short notice. This additional revenue can contribute significantly to the company's financial health.

Customer loyalty: Selling empty flights offers Blissair the opportunity to promote customer loyalty. Existing customers can benefit from exclusive offers for empty flights and thereby become more closely linked to the brand.

Acquiring new customers: Empty flights also attract new customers. People who may not have previously considered a private jet charter may be attracted to Blissair's attractive prices and outstanding service.

Flexibility for Customers: Empty leg flights offer customers the flexibility to plan short-term travel without incurring the usual high costs of private jet charters. This significantly expands the customer base.

Increase efficiency: Selling empty flights can help increase the efficiency of aircraft positioning. By using empty flights as customer flights, aircraft relocation is optimized, which reduces costs.

Environmental responsibility: Using empty flights to maximize aircraft utilization helps reduce the environmental footprint. Fewer empty flights mean less fuel consumption and therefore less environmental impact.

Risk minimization: Empty flights also offer Blissair an opportunity to minimize risks. In the event of unexpected events or unforeseeable cancellations of customer flights, empty flights can help minimize operational losses.

Advertising and brand awareness: Selling empty flights also serves as a marketing tool. Blissair can use empty leg flights to promote its brand and make potential customers aware of the quality of its services.

Challenges and solutions for selling empty legs

Of course, there are also challenges when selling empty flights. One of the biggest challenges is balancing empty legs with customer needs. Here are some solutions that Blissair is pursuing:

Real-time planning: Blissair uses advanced flight planning software to monitor empty flights in real time and coordinate customer flights. This makes it possible to sell empty flights spontaneously when the opportunity arises.

Flexible pricing models: Blissair offers flexible pricing models for empty flights based on demand and customer needs. This makes it possible to offer empty flights at competitive prices.

Customer communication: Clear communication with customers is crucial. Blissair regularly informs its customers about available empty leg flights and special offers to increase demand.

Long-term planning: Empty flights can also be planned long-term to optimize aircraft utilization. This requires precise analysis of routes and times to minimize empty flights.