Stratajet To Launch Booking Platform With $5 Million Investment

Charter booking site Stratajet.com is preparing for a full commercial launch this summer after securing $5 million in fresh investment from an undisclosed backer. The UK-based company is embarking on a marketing roadshow this month called Operation Longreach that will use a Piper Seneca to visit 145 airports across Europe in a bid to more than double the size of the group of 12 operators it currently has beta-testing the system by launch-time.

Stratajet has been in development for the past four years while founder Jonathan Nicol and his team refined the algorithm that he says delivers the charter industry’s only 100-percent-accurate, real-time charter booking system for consumers. Essentially, the system is intended to calculate the true cost of a so-called “partial empty leg” by working out the net difference in cost of the requested new trip and any empty leg involved.

“This means that the consumer pays less and the operator makes a greater profit margin,” Nicol told AIN. “For instance, if an aircraft finishes a flight in Madrid at noon on Monday and it is needed back in London on Thursday, the system can calculate the true cost of a flight out of Barcelona between these days. If the second flight isn’t on the same day [as the arrival in Madrid] it will calculate costs such as overnight expenses for the crew and aircraft parking charges.”

A Move to the Mainstream

Stratajet employs a research team to ensure that the system includes up-to-date information on all relevant costs, such as airport landing and parking fees. The system interfaces with flight operations software used by operators so that it takes account of true real-time availability of the aircraft. The integration of the flight operations software is achieved through the Stratafleet inventory-management software, which the company provides to operators at no charge. It also offers the StrataFBO software to allow FBOs to interface with the main website.

“With real-time pricing we can move business aviation away from being a niche sector and into mainline transportation,” said Nicol. “99.5 percent pricing accuracy just doesn’t cut it anymore.”

Stratajet’s goal is to have its charter availability posted alongside scheduled airline flights in leading travel booking systems, such as Expedia and Kyack. Customers pay a 5-percent commission on the price of flights booked either online or by phone.

According to Nicol, 30 to 40 percent of empty-leg flights are not being put to commercial use. Stratajet accepts operators only after checking the details of their air operator certificates and safety standards.