LunaJets, the private jet charter division of Switzerland-based Luna Aviation Group, has exceeded $100 million annual revenue in 2021 for the first time in its history. This represents 65 per cent growth of flight volume versus 2020, and 40 per cent versus 2019. The number of flights reached almost 8,000, including empty legs.

“Considering how highly volatile the market has been since the beginning of the pandemic and the slow start to the year, these figures, which are well above the rest of the market, confirm our position as the European market leader,” says director of sales Guillaume Launay. “We beat our record of new clients with over 1,100 in 2021, with an unprecedented level of clients switching supplier and newcomers into the industry. Most of these are leisure clients, which this year represent nearly 70 per cent of our activity, compared to around 50 per cent in 2019, whereas our business clients have dramatically reduced their flight hours.”

Starting in April last year, the business aviation market experienced a dramatic shift from an oversupply to an undersupply, mainly fuelled by a drastic improvement in the health situation until mid November; a lack of commercial flight routes; and a huge increase in wealth resulting from bullish stock markets.

“This recent golden age for our industry is an opportunity to accelerate our global development,” notes CEO Eymeric Segard. “We also greatly benefited from the strong demand pressures on 25 hour card providers and jet sharing programmes that could not grow fast enough to absorb this unprecedented level of clients flying on their own fleet. Therefore, some of these clients switched to our services, offering unlimited direct access to a much wider fleet of recent aircraft worldwide. I am delighted with our performance but not fooled by these exceptional circumstances, which feel like it did in 2007 when founding LunaJets, with signs of alarming over-excitement. For example, we are seeing rates-per-hour on large cabin aircraft category increasing and availability dramatically reducing.”

This year, LunaJets started to accept crypto payments, offered carbon offsetting programmes and was awarded a prize for the 'Best SME Employer' in Switzerland for the fourth year in a row by Swiss business magazine Bilan.

“The group doubled its IT and digital investments in 2021, and we will continue in 2022 to increase our gap with the competition. Next year, we will offer to our clients the most advanced IT and digital tools of our industry,” says head of IT and digital José Ferreiro.

After opening new offices in London in 2019, in Paris in 2020 and Monaco in 2021, LunaJets will expand to Riga, Moscow and Dubai in 2022.

“Our new offices and inherent synergies within the group (private jet charter, group charter, cargo, sales and acquisitions) have created an ecosystem where we cover all sectors of our industry to deliver the same independent and reliable service as LunaJets has done for over 15 years,” adds managing director Alain Leboursier. “This has created a unique position where we are building deeper business relationships with our clients and suppliers, being able to service all their aviation needs as well as rapidly gaining new clients in these markets.”

Despite the clear signs of a bubble in the industry, LunaJets remains confident that it can continue gaining market share and is once more targeting 20-30 per cent growth for 2022, as long as there are no geopolitical, financial or health shocks.