Business soaring as more high fliers go bespoke

IT'S a form of transport that has been branded wasteful and elitist by the environmental lobby. Yet, despite rankling the greens, there's little sign of any slowdown in the executive air travel market.

On the contrary, demand for business jets has risen to record levels as Britain's captains of industry rush to beat the security searches and check-in queues.

Scotland is sharing in this executive aviation boom.

Fresh figures from BAA reveal that the number of private jet movements at the group's three Scottish airports increased by 50 per cent to 7,319 between 2001 and 2006. Edinburgh racked up the fastest increase at 84 per cent.

Looking to cash in on this soaring demand is a young Scottish entrepreneur who has set up her own air brokerage business after working for three years in the corporate aviation industry.

Six months in, Elena Torres says Exec Air Charter is performing ahead of expectations with many businesses viewing the service as an "essential executive travel tool".

Bespoke travel packages have been organised from the Scottish capital to a range of domestic and European locations including London, Inverness, Florence and Faro in Portugal.

While initial demand came from businesses such as law firms and banks, an increasing amount of trade is being driven by well-heeled individuals looking for a hassle-free alternative to scheduled flights.

"Recently, there has been strong demand from wealthy individuals in Edinburgh - property developers, for example," Torres says.

"Business is coming from all angles. There's also more leisure travel involved. I've just had a phone call from a PR company in Glasgow asking for 150 people to be moved up to Inverness and then transferred by helicopters to Skye."

Unlike the market for outright or part ownership of a private jet, the charter market relies more on insider knowledge and contacts than glossy advertising.

Torres, 25, makes her money from commissions paid by the aircraft operators. Then there are the add-on services such as helicopter or chauffeur-driven transfers that most customers consider an essential part of the private air travel experience.

"It's PAs that I usually deal with," says Torres, who was based at Edinburgh Airport's business aviation terminal after graduating.

"They will call me up, give me details of where they want their boss to go and outline their schedule, and I'll hunt for a suitable aircraft. Other demands will also be met, providing a seamless service to the client.

"I am now working alongside a number of operators, who generally don't want to be dealing with cold calling from businesses."

By tapping into a range of business jet operators, Exec Air Charter is able to source anything from a small Piper aircraft that can transport up to four people to Gulfstream jets capable of whisking twice as many passengers across the Atlantic at an altitude of 40,000ft.

Private jets, with their high emissions-per-passenger outputs, may be top of the environmentalists' hit-list, but such concerns are unlikely to wean high-flying executives away from their Cessnas and Learjets.

Torres says: "It's all about time saved. You are talking here about people working in international markets and it's often essential that they fly to meetings at short notice.

"It would be impractical for them to stop flying."

Last month, The Scotsman revealed that one of the world's largest operators of private jets, NetJets Europe, was to expand its presence in Scotland after it unveiled a steep rise in the number of flights to and from the country.

The firm said it would set up a new base in Aberdeen, complementing its existing "crew gateway" in Edinburgh.

Torres welcomes any move to expand aircraft availability north of the Border, saying: "There are times when clients phone up and I can't source suitable aircraft for them. It's certainly good news that more planes are coming in."

The founder of Exec Air Charter admits that it was a "big leap" to set up shop on her own, but says investment was limited to securing office space, a fax machine and computer equipment.

"I already had the knowledge and the contacts. I knew all the operators in the UK," she says.

As business takes to the skies, plans for the coming months include hiring additional staff and securing office space in the centre of town.