A new platform is being developed that could revolutionise the private aviation industry. The platform, created by a company called LFS and Mega, is designed to reduce the cost of private jet travel by creating a unique schedule for operators that links multiple locations together. The platform will be completely digital and customers will be able to book flights for just $1.00 per click fee. This could be a game-changer for the aviation industry, and it will be interesting to see how it develops….
MEGA will specialise in the charter business, aiming to change the game of pricing. They have offices in Dubai, Bahrain, Amman, the US, and France, and are planning to open an office in Malta. They are looking to increase the supply and demand of charter flights by mixing and matching flights, as the majority of inquiries in the market are one way. They plan to create a platform that will build up a pure schedule, reducing the cost for everyone involved and increasing the sales for the operators. It will take 7-9 months to develop and will be all digital, with no need for computers.
We caught up with Tareq, the CEO of MEGA and Location Flight Services in Bahrain.
Tareq’s main priority is “bring Mega’s name in the charter markets, especially in the world of aircraft management”, whilst his existing company, Location Flight Services will continue to concentrate on flight support and dispatches on a global level.
Moving back to talk about his new venture, Tareq explains that the MEGA name is Middle East General Aviation. “We have offices in Dubai now, Bahrain, Amman and also we will be opening in the US and France and now we have teams in Dubai, Bahrain and Amman.
Mega will specialise in the charter business, and has been designed to disrupt the game of pricing. Nowadays charter flight prices are going very high, very high and there is high demand yet low supply. And the operators sometimes are becoming very expensive except two operators, which are VistaJet and Air X. Both of them offer very good rates and this can be applied also on all the charter operators.
VistaJet and Air X operators are still using the old methodology for the pricing. The structure of the pricing says that the hourly rate is $1000 times by the hours flying from base to base, but this is no longer happening today.
Today for example, if you are flying from Dubai to London Air X and VistaJet, they might offer you the flight for 55 to 65 thousand dollars. While others on the same machine, same type of machine, they are offering the charter for 95 and 100 thousand. The difference is Air X and Vista Jet have huge fleets. Air X, I think 16 or 20 planes they have now, and VistaJet I think almost 200 jets worldwide.
I have a plan to make a platform that will increase the supply and increase the demand.
And I’ll do that by mixing and matching the flights.
Today, for example, as operators in the US, we have like 2 planes and this is not enough to cover the demand for the customers. But if we select the majority of the flights in this market 65% only fly one way, 25% are round trips and 10% run to multiple locations.
So if we are talking about the 65% majority of the inquiries in the market are one way, We have to have something that builds up a pure schedule. For example, you have Dubai – Bahrain, another person has Riyadh – Amman and I have Cairo – Tel Aviv for example. This platform creates a unique schedule for the operator and matches these three links as one flight, it will increase the sales for the operators and it will reduce the cost for all of us.
As of now, it is still in the implementation stage of how to shuffle the schedules so it will depend on a little flexibility from the customer’s side.
For example, if the client wants to have a better price on a private jet, then he would have to be somehow flexible on the date of the departure.
We could advance your departure, for example, bring it forward by six hours or delaying it until the next morning or one or two days.
The major thing is to reduce the positioning for the operator. Rather than keep flying on each single flight, this will make this platform a win win for everybody.
The next stage is Development. It will take around 7 to 9 months and then we will test it as a BETA version and after that we will be launching it.
Everybody nowadays is holding just the handheld mobile phones and just doing everything through WhatsApp and through their phones. So you can use this service with a few clicks on your phone. The app and platform will be linked through an API with the operator’s schedule and then we will open it as a basket for all the customer’s inquiries and then we will shuffle it accordingly. Our pricing model will be revolutionary – we will charge the customer $1 per click/inquiry – keeping their price down, cutting out the broker who can at times charge high prices for a bigger cut. But more importantly, at no cost to the operator”
