Royal Jet celebrates six continually successful years of operation

The company, which is chaired by H.E. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, was launched in May 2003 as the commercial arm of the Amiri Flight (now renamed the Presidential Flight Authority) to deliver the finest executive flight services to the Middle East's flourishing VIP and business aviation markets.

President and CEO Shane O'Hare, says:

"Since our inception we have been a profitable company, and every year since then, Royal Jet has shown a steady growth in its profits. Even in the current global economic downturn we are maintaining the strong performance we showed in 2008 with a further increase in first quarter earnings compared with a year ago. This comes on top of a 17% increase in profits over 2008 as a whole and a 21% increase in revenue."

He adds, "We already account for over 16 per cent of the region's charter market with clients made up of government officials, corporate decision makers, sporting and show business celebrities, high end bespoke travel providers, insurance companies, the health care sector and many more; and we are continuing to scoop a number of prestigious awards, with the WTA's World Leading Private Jet Charter and AIN's Best FBO in the Middle East just two of a long string of accolades."

"In part this has been achieved through continually monitoring and addressing the needs of a rapidly changing market," O'Hare continues. "Last year we adopted a policy of increasing diversification of our business across all possible sectors, including our FBO [Fixed Base Operations], an emphasis on aircraft management, the establishment of a Charter Brokerage service, an increase in Royal Med [Medevac] services, and of course, our core aircraft charter business. We have well developed plans for expansion across the Gulf region, too, and will soon be making an announcement on this."

"Part of our growth strategy is to expand our fleet by incorporating aircraft management as a major part of our business. The latest addition of a Challenger 604 under such a deal means we are firmly on track to more than double our fleet size to over 20 by the year 2012, with a preponderance of VIP and super-midsize planes," he states.

Shane O'Hare highlights the importance of Royal Jet's reputation for reliability, security and privacy. "A large part of our new business comes from guest referrals, so the very high standards we set ourselves are reflected in the amount of new enquiries we continue to receive. We give the highest priority to the quality of our staff, who are quite simply the best in the business. We continue to invest substantially in the training and recruitment of high calibre staff; and we have in place an established Emirati graduate training programme which is already proving its worth. We also recently launched a 'world-first' by becoming the only private jet charter company to offer its guests a personal chef, providing them with bespoke gourmet dining based on their own individual preferences."

"So as we enter our seventh year of operations, we have much to look forward to and a great deal to celebrate as we continue to set the benchmarks for other private charter services across the world," O'Hare concluded.