Following the promotion of Director of Private Jets Maddison Gerhardt, Air Charter Service has announced plans to expand operations in its two California offices.
Gerhardt said, “The private aviation market in California was always buoyant pre-pandemic, boasting the most amount of departures of any state, before the obvious drop-off following the onset of Covid. Since that slump we’ve seen a real bounce-back in the past 12 months with the return of the entertainment industry and business travellers flying again. Sales grew considerably and last year we saw 9% growth on 2019’s pre-pandemic levels, compared to the market which saw only 4% growth on overall departures in the state.”
Air Charter Service (ACS) has seven other offices across North America, along with LA and San Francisco, and 28 globally. The company arranges larger passenger aircraft and cargo charters, as well as private jets. Last year it recorded revenues of $1.8bn.
Gerhardt added, “Our Jet Card product, a pre-paid account with funds held on account, has seen sales skyrocket across the US – up by 127% year-on-year. We saw a lot of new customers turn to private aviation during the pandemic and we are now seeing many of them upgrade to a Jet Card, as a way to secure aircraft availability in a challenging market for fleet operators.”
In early 2020 ACS launched its carbon offset scheme intended to offset 100% of emissions on private jet flights. The process adds an optional 0.5% charge which is used to purchase carbon credits on the CTX exchange. Those credits will then be invested in two energy projects in Africa and Indonesia; Hestian Stoves and Wind Indonesia.
Thomas Howe, CEO of ACS California, said, “We are looking to recruit talented aviation professionals to grow the team and drive forward from our record year and a strong first quarter to this one. With scheduled services not expected to fully return to pre-pandemic levels for several years, private aviation is going to continue to be in high demand for the foreseeable future.”
