French business aviation provider Wijet has acquired fellow European operator Blink, becoming the largest very light jet-equipped air taxi company in the world – Wijet Group. With an enterprise value of around US$50m, the transaction has resulted in a combined fleet of 15 Cessna Citation Mustangs.
Both companies will continue to operate under their separate brands for now, but one immediate change will be Blink joining Wijet on the OpenJet real-time booking platform. This will help the group serve more customers, and with its extended fleet become even more competitive on price. Blink’s maintenance and operation capability will remain in the UK and Italy, while Wijet will keep its offices in Paris.
Cameron Ogden, co-CEO of the newly-formed Wijet Group, said, “Bringing together Blink’s world-class operations expertise and well developed UK, Swiss and Italian customer bases, with Wijet’s French and Benelux customer base and fundraising acumen, will show the real power of the air taxi concept. Wijet Group is now well positioned to increase the scale and breadth of its air taxi service throughout Europe.”
Corentin Denoeud, co-CEO of Wijet Group, added, “The transaction sends a clear message to the air taxi industry. We now have the largest fleet of Mustangs and a customer base across Western Europe that will be far better served by the new consolidated company. Cameron and I will be working closely together to integrate the two companies and give our enlarged customer base the best experience possible.
“A new innovative offer based on real-time pricing will soon allow our customers to completely change their perception of business aviation.”
