Stratajet CEO and Piper Chieftain pilot Jonny Nicol in the cockpit with Stratajet operator relationship manager and co-pilot Cecilie Øyås

Stratajet lands in the USA

UK-based online private jet marketplace Stratajet has arrived in the USA to launch a sales campaign, following the success of its booking technology in Europe and of Operation Longreach, when CEO Jonny Nicol did a similar tour of Europe. Nicol and his team have landed in Maine in their Piper Chieftain and will be touring the US to meet charter operators and FBOs at key airfields across the country.

The team also attended a number of industry events, starting with the Schedulers and Dispatchers congress in Tampa and NBAA's Regional Forum in West Palm Beach, both in January.

Stratajet launched its pricing technology in Europe and has already reached its European aircraft capacity. The technology links directly with operator's pricing systems, requiring no interaction from brokers or other middlemen, to provide charter pricing to customers.

Nicol says: “After such a successful campaign in Europe we are now more than ready to bring this industry changing opportunity to operators and FBOs in the USA. Our proposition was validated from our very first booking when a customer achieved a 40 per cent discount on a traditional broker flight booking, because we were able to include a partial empty leg. This is the opportunity to grow our stagnant industry that all operators need.”

Senior team expands

The company has appointed Ricardo Gato as head of marketing and Sarah Holian as head of operations and customer service. Gato has over nine years' experience in private aviation, including a seven year spell at NetJets, and joins the company from Victor where he was global marketing manager, responsible for evaluating advertising and sponsorship opportunities as well as digital and direct marketing.

“Having been with both NetJets and Victor, I completely understand the need for a truly instant booking platform where you can book a jet in real-time, without the need for multiple quotes and back and forth emails,” explains Gato. “Stratajet has the technology to drastically increase efficiency in the private aviation industry and I'm looking forward to being part of that.”

Holian has over 14 years' experience in private aviation charter sales, operations and customer service management. She joins Stratajet to run the operational team responsible for managing bookings and customer require-ments to ensure all elements of every flight are managed efficiently.

“Stratajet has solved the highly complex problem of managing data for the many and variable aspects of private charter such as airfield limitations, aircraft real-time availability and accurate pricing all round, in order to provide the end user and aircraft operators genuine instant booking online,” says Holian. “This is a first, and as such is unique for the industry and something I am very excited to be a part of.”