Consumer-facing ‘Uber for private jets’ applications for artificial intelligence represent just one way AI will change private jet travel.

The decades-long journey toward “click-to-book” on-demand private jet charter bookings, which has provided fodder for so many fake news press releases with brokers proclaiming themselves the “Expedia of private jets,” will gain a tailwind from artificial intelligence.

However, the role of AI will have an equal, if not greater, impact behind the scenes.

That is according to a panel of industry executives speaking earlier this month at the Corporate Jet Investor conference in Miami.

FlyHouse CEO Jack Lambert described the current private aviation industry as “very fragmented, very opaque, and filled with a bunch of friction.”

His company is looking to join the online booking fray by connecting consumers with operators who can offer real-time bookable pricing.

Uber (and Lyft) Of Private Jets

Elevate Aviation Group CEO Greg Raiff predicted B2C private jet booking applications will increasingly use agentic AI to automate the on-demand charter space.

He also asked, “What is the definition of Uber for private jets? Is it metaphorical, or is it, ‘I got to book this thing in 10 seconds on my phone?’”

Raiff pointed out, “In the most literal sense, that can’t happen because an Uber driver doesn’t have to be licensed past the state as a private vehicle (driver). And obviously no one’s going to go fly a jet around without (Part) 135 (charter) certifications.”

He continued, “How is technology going to change the charter brokerage and charter space?”

The current obstacle, of course, is to get real-time pricing that you can search and book across the same broad spectrum of operators, as brokers currently do when you reach out to them.

Current ad hoc charter instant-booking interfaces face a litany of challenges.

Some offer limited fleets or routes.

There is often limited ability to specify aircraft types, vintages, and amenities.

Others charge inflated prices to protect themselves from losing by pricing flights below cost.

The limitations prevent the platforms from being the one-stop shop they aspire to be.

However, Raiff sees a robust market with multiple players.

He asked attendees, “How many people here have Lyft and only Lyft on their phone?”

The answer was “very few.”

Raiff said, “Everyone who’s got Uber and Lyft on their phone got to a day they were leaving a concert or they were leaving an airport and Uber just kept cancelling and you’re waiting and you’re waiting and you’re waiting and finally you said, ‘Okay, forget it I’m going to go download this Lyft thing that I know about and see if that comes, and for those of you that stuck with Lyft it’s because Lyft showed up on a day at a moment in time when Uber couldn’t deliver you a car reliably in that moment.”

He noted some rideshare users toggle between rideshare apps to compare prices.

Raiff predicted, “There will be an Uber of private jets. There will be a Lyft of private jets. There will also be three other competitors or 10 other competitors, and that’s fine. And consumers will make their own decisions for themselves.”

Instant Booking (Not)

Raif highlighted that apps positioning themselves as an Expedia or Uber for private jets are often nothing more than lead generation tools.

Despite their claims, they only offer estimated pricing in real time.

Users have to wait for follow-up calls or emails with real pricing.

Raiff cited three cases where he tested charter broker apps.

He told the audience, “I got three emails this morning from charter brokers where I’ve downloaded their app (to book), and three of them called me this morning. One guy was selling jet cards.”

Of course, the larger issue is the lack of automation from the operator side in quoting trips, panelists agreed.

Tuvoli CEO Greg Johnson said, “Today, almost all charter operators are quoting manually, and it’s hard to keep up with the pace of the inbound requests.”

He continued, “If you look at the time it can take a charter broker to get good quotes, if it’s after 5:00 pm, Sally has already left.”

Lambert noted that most operators are relatively small.

He cited that 94% of U.S. charter operators have less than 15 airplanes.

Over 600 operators have at least one jet on their charter certificate.

In terms of getting quotes from operators to consumers, Lambert said, “Susie, she’s under 30, got three kids, and leaves the office at 2 pm. It’s very difficult to do multitasking jobs. She’s an accountant; she handles the charter and operations. So, it isn’t easy. So, to this point, speed does become a problem.”

Raiff also noted that digital solutions will only appeal to one segment of consumers who want to do it themselves.

He said flight providers need to adjust their product offerings to serve different market segments.

That varies from high-touch customers with specific needs to jet card customers who want guaranteed pricing.

AI Behind The Scenes

The panelists agreed that the most significant impact of artificial intelligence is likely behind the scenes.

Magellan Jets President Anthony Tivnan told CJI attendees that, in addition to getting better pricing more quickly for on-demand itineraries, AI could help with accessing itineraries, making changes, adding passengers, and completing payments.

Lambert noted ramp workers at FBO group Signature Aviation now use tablets to report the refueling process in real time, saving multiple calls.

As another example of a function AI could support, Johnson pointed to checking the weather.

He said:

‘It’s a good best practice to be checking the weather for the itinerary on a trip three or four days out, looking for issues, and then communicating that to the customer and coming up with a plan B. AI today could automatically start checking the weather three or four days out. Pretty soon, it could be recommending what plan B could be, and then it’s not too far in the future where it could communicate what plan B is to your customer and go back and forth. Now, are you still going to have people on top of that looking at (AI’s work product)?’

Tivnan said successful companies will implement AI to “enhance customer experience” by “reducing friction.”

Tivnan added, for smart flight providers, digital won’t be a race to the bottom, going after price shoppers.

“We can (use AI to) simplify (and secure) that client experience,” he said, eliminating sending an “unsecured picture of your credit card that you’re sending to somebody you don’t know.”

He added, “When you remove those obstacles at the level of clients that we’re all working with (versus saving) $1,000 here, $1,500 there (shopping brokers against each other), I think clients will find it worth the peace of mind and the simplicity of that experience.”

Employee Impact of AI

At the same time, companies need to be transparent with employees about the use of artificial intelligence.

Tivnan said, “One of the elephants in the room when you have these conversations around AI is job displacement.”

Executives get excited about the efficiencies AI will produce.

Employees are reading that Amazon is cutting 14,000 workers whose roles will be replaced by AI.

Redeploying employees to where they can enhance the customer experience will separate winners from losers.

Strategic Opportunities

Raiff said successful companies will be strategic in how they deploy artificial intelligence.

He said, “We generate margins that are probably twice what anyone else in the charter brokerage industry has generated at scale at length over decades. And for us, though, that means it’s too expensive to go quote a light jet trip from New York to Boston. We can’t do that well, and we can’t do it quickly.”

He continues, “The problem was how do we compete on lower margin, shorter trips on smaller aircraft in a cost-effective manner?”

Elevate Aviation Group, he says, is “deploying and investing heavily in AI to price those flights out and do it under an entirely different brand that will launch here in the next quarter.”

Both Johnson and Raiff agreed that AI will play an increasingly important role in pricing, even for complicated international trips.

Johnson noted, “That sounds like a daunting problem today. It’s going to be a trivial problem tomorrow. That data will be available. And we have the history.”

Raiff said he expects rapid changes in the not-too-distant future.

He noted that when he started the charter business, it had its version of the Yellow Pages, adding, “And the crazy thing is that there’s probably some people in the room that don’t know what the Yellow Pages were.”

Relationships Rule

Panelists believe it will be difficult for smaller brokerages to make the necessary technology investments.

Raiff believes many may exit the business.

However, panelists also pointed to the emergence of tech companies now focusing on the B2B space.

Many, they said, are targeting the market’s long tail of smaller brokers and operators.

Nearly 70% of Private Jet Card Comparisons subscribers say they are open to working with boutique providers.

To that end, Lambert stressed the importance of relationships.

“AI is not going to take you out to dinner, have a drink with you,” he said.

Johnson asserted nobody has a crystal ball.

He said, “It will be very interesting to see as AI comes into play. Does it tip the scales back in favor of the operator, or does it make brokers even stronger? The wise man said, ‘We’ll see.’”

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