Private flights in Croatia: Why is jet chartering on the rise among business people?

Private jet flights represent an exclusive travel option that provides passengers with a high level of comfort, flexibility and practicality, which is why they are often the no.1 choice by many business people. Jung Sky, a private airline company from Croatia, has been operating in the business aviation market for almost 15 years, providing on-demand private jet flights. How frequent are private jet flights in Croatia, what are the advantages of such a service and why do business people decide to fly private in the first place – those and many other intriguing questions were answered by Jung Sky’s board member Jasna Jung in an interview for After5.hr. This is the English translation of that article, originally published on 28th of Febuary 2024 and written by Sara Markov. 

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Jung Sky was founded in 2009 with the mission to become the first choice for business and private flights of the most sophisticated clients. Their fleet currently consists of three Cessna 525A CJ2 jets and the company offers flights to destinations throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and northern parts of Africa. Until last year, with two jets in the fleet, they operated an average of between 1,200 and 1,300 flights per year which not only includes passenger flights, but also positioning and training flights as well as flying to maintenance appointments. Last year, their number of flights increased by 30 percent because, for a shorter part of the year they operated with three business jets in the fleet.

Private flights in Croatia

On a yearly basis, Jung Sky has flights to more than 200 airports in almost 40 countries. Although the popularity of a destination somewhat depends on whether it is a “swimming season” or the “skiing season”, destinations that are most common in their flight ops are Nice, Rome, London, Zurich, Milan, Vienna, Paris, Geneva, Palma de Mallorca, Olbia Costa Smeralda...

"If you ask me how often do people from Croatia use private jets, the answer is - not very often, but if we are talking about how much or how often are private jets present at our airports, I would definitely say - more than people think, especially at our seaside airports during the period from June to September. Regular commercial aviation is obviously still more frequent in that period, but if in July or August you sit somewhere where you can watch the landings at airports in Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar or even Brač, it is very likely that you will – in one day – see many different types of business jets", says Jung Sky’s board member Jasna Jung.
 

The passengers

Their clients are mostly business people who relatively often have to travel from point A in one country to point B in another country, and the reason for the trip is some kind of a business undertaking which they mostly want to be over with within one or two days, and at the same time they want to minimize the amount of time lost on the trip itself.

"Entrepreneurs, company owners, board members, directors, 'C-level' management - those are some of the more common profiles of our passengers. Sometimes, the purpose of the trip is purely for fun, although it is never anything extravagant. Some passengers choose to fly private for their summer vacations or for ski trips in the winter. Sometimes they fly to various sports competitions, matches, finals, races, concerts, festivals, fairs, shows... Pretty much every type of happening you can think of. And of course, sometimes we fly domestic or international celebrities and that’s always a fun day for the whole office. ‘Celebrity flights’ are not that frequent, but they are part of our flight ops on a continuous basis", says Jasna.

The advantages of travelling with a private jet

The main advantages of flying private are practicality, flexibility, time-saving and minimizing the number of factors that can impact on how quickly you will reach your destination.

"Time is a very precious resource, and we all know that in regular commercial aviation you depend on available routes, you spend a lot of time waiting at airports, and if your trip includes connecting flights - you worry about whether or not everything will be on schedule. In business aviation, the flights are always direct. Furthermore, presuming there are no major logistical obstacles - the flight can be organized within 1-2 hours, and you can choose your departure and arrival destination from among thousands of airports in Europe. You arrive at the airport 15-20 minutes before the flight, you avoid crowds because at most airports you go through a separate general aviation terminal, and on the plane - you are alone or in the company of family, friends or business partners", says Jasna, adding the passengers cannot always get the departure time they want, but they will be offered with the best possible alternatives. In this part of comfort and flexibility, the role of a broker helps a lot.

How to book a private jet flight?

In most cases, private jet flights are booked through private jet brokers, although it is also possible to do the same directly with an operator such as Jung Sky. Both approaches have their advantages and perhaps some disadvantages, claims Jasna, but whichever method you choose, the process of booking a private flight is very simple. "You define the departure and arrival destination, the number of passengers, flight date and preferred time of departure. When an agreement is reached that satisfies all parties involved, a contract is signed that is tied to that particular flight. In 99% of cases, an operator like us signs a contract with a broker, and the broker has his own contract with the passenger", she explains.

The booking process is simple, but some complications can occur in later stages. Although private flights offer a high level of flexibility and freedom in terms of choosing and possibly changing the above-mentioned parameters, this freedom is not absolute or unlimited.
 

“This is a V.I.P. service, but the passenger - for justified operational and/or logistical reasons - cannot always get what he or she wants. Bear in mind the air traffic depends on some factors that are not under the control of the passengers, brokers or operators, and can change the entire flight plan in the blink of an eye. Things like weather forecast, airport strikes, airport or aircraft limitations, delays of other flights that affect your 'slot'... All these factors should be taken into account. Therefore, for us as an operator, it is of paramount importance that we are thorough, fast, transparent and precise in our communication, and it is certainly a plus when the broker, who is a professional in this very specific type of aviation, participates in our communication with the passengers", says Jasna.

How much does a private jet flights cost?

We were interested in how much it all costs. That is - how the price of a private jet flight is determined. "Let's take for example that someone requests an offer for a flight from the island of Brač in Croatia to Ibiza during March. The price will be 12,400 EUR. The basis of this offer is the price of one hour of flight which is multiplied by the total flight hours required for the requested rotation, including the arrival of the aircraft to Brač and the return of the aircraft to our base after landing in Ibiza. The price of one flight hour can vary depending on the season, but on average it is between 2,000 and 3,000 EUR."

The price of the flight with Jung Sky includes unlimited consumption of drinks and snacks that are always available on the plane, which in the case of drinks, in addition to water, juices, teas and coffee, also includes some types of beer, wine and spirits. It's not uncommon for the passengers to have some sort of special requests, but that doesn't happen very often and it’s never anything excessive, unusual or unexpected. "Sometimes, a specific type of beer or whiskey is requested, or it can be a precisely defined catering menu. It is not possible to have anything more complicated than that, at least not in the light-jet category to which our planes belong. Operators of larger business jets probably face some type of special requirements more often", Jasna tells us.

Sustainability of air travel and the future of business aviation in Croatia

Zero-emission aviation is something we read about in the media a lot. Can air travel be more sustainable than it is? "In theory, it can and it will be, but it cannot happen overnight. At the moment, there’s a lot of discussion around the entire aviation industry about the most efficient and most effective strategy to achieve goals set by the EU, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 55 percent by 2030 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Whichever source of information you look at right now, it will be clear to you that all the initiatives mentioned so far regarding this matter, in addition to obvious advantages, also have a considerable number of logistical, infrastructural and operational obstacles and it's is that very reason why the industry is debating about which strategy has the most potential, but is also the most realistic and feasible within the specified time frame.

In the end, I believe the goals will be achieved within the deadline, probably through a combination of measures depending on which part of the industry or the world we’re talking about, but we must be prepared that everything will continue to go gradually, one step at the time. Business aviation, although often portrayed negatively in the context of climate challenges, has been extremely engaged in this matter and its own eco-footprint for years, and is often a pioneer and test-ground for various technological and environmental innovations before they are extended to regular commercial aviation", says Jasna, whom – at the end - we asked about the future of business aviation in Croatia:
 

"The future is bright, definitely. All major steps - whether it’s increasing one’s fleet, or establishing a maintenance organization, or various infrastructural projects of domestic airports - require time, high investments and the cooperation between all stakeholders in the aviation industry as well as with the industry regulators, the government and tourist boards. The business aviation community around the globe is in continuous growth and development, and we can see in Jung Sky’s example that the same applies to our domestic market and that a boutique operator from Croatia can prove its worth on a very competitive European market."