New airline places largest ever Learjet order

A former pilot with the RAF and his investors have recently placed the largest order for aircraft seen by Learjet, worth £815 million. Their belief is that the current economic downturn does not adversely affect the need for business travel on private jets.

Jonathan Breeze, who is the chief executive of the newly-formed airline known as Jet Republic, has ordered 110 Bombardier Learjet 60XRs that feature all the amenities that high net worth business executives would expect while in flight, including enhanced security systems, Internet connections for BlackBerry mobile phones and flight attendants who are multi-lingual.

The chief executive claims that his airline is offering the equivalent of a luxury hotel experience while flying, and feels that the crisis in the banking industry is likely to work in his company’s favour. Jet Republic is catering to the highest end of the market, which is a different segment than that targeted by Eos, Maxjet and Silverjet which all ceased trading earlier this year.

His rationale is that in the current economic environment, a number of highly-successful entrepreneurs and high net work travellers may decide against buying their own planes and buy space on one of his Learjets instead, which will provide service to over 1,000 European airports.

Jet Republic will be Lisbon-based, and is committed to ensure that travel on its aircraft is carbon-neutral, by using offsetting.

www.jetrepublic.com