Air Charter Broker Lives Up To Its Name

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Air Partner has been a prominent air charter broker in Europe for the past 20 years.

Three years ago, U.K.-based Air Partner established an office here, with intentions of penetrating the U.S. market.

According to Mike Guina, president of Air Partner USA, his company can best fulfill its goals by establishing partnerships with travel agencies.

"We view [agents] as the sales department," said Guina.

"It's obvious to me that you must have a strong relationship with the travel agent industry. They know what customers want."

Corporate use of business jets has been on the rise in the past few years, evidenced by the creation of on-line charter brokers such as Flightserv.com and Skyjet.com.

However, Guina said he is skeptical about the Web model for procuring private charter reservations for customers.

"The Internet is aimed at a mass market," said Guina. "I don't see charter as, a huge market base."

In fact, Guina characterized the industry as "disorganized and fragmented" and the reason charter brokers are required in the first place.

There are hundreds of charter operators and thousands of planes out there, creating a niche for companies that can establish relationships with operators and familiarize themselves with the available inventory, he said.

In turn, charter brokers can inform customers about what jet is right for their particular needs.

Air Partner has its regular clientele that deal with the company directly, but the best way to reach more customers is to establish relationships with travel agencies, said Guina.

"To circumvent the travel agent is self-defeating because the travel agent is the one closest to the customer," he said.

"If you do [circumvent agents], they will not use your service or will find someone else that will work [with] them."

Guina gave the example of Renaissance, a cruise line that shunned agents as a distributing channel.

He is a friend of Frank Del Rio, one of Renaissance's new chief executive officers who recently implemented agent-friendly policies, such as a 10% commission on cruise bookings.

Air Partner's business model involves sharing commissions with agencies, although Guina would not say how the commission is divided.

Neither would Rosenbluth International, an agency with which Guina's company partnered.

Guina said that Air Partner is targeting a total 10% to 12% commission on charter bookings made in the U.S.

If a customer calls an agent at Rosenbluth and wants to book a private jet, that agent will in turn call Air Partner with specifics about the requested itinerary.

An Air Partner agent will then search through the database to find a jet that matches the customer's needs.

Guina said his company is planning to streamline the reservations process through the Web by developing a database and booking engine that can be accessed by travel agents on desktop computers.