Low Profile PR Strategy Hurts Charter Jet Companies
By Christina Bohnstengel
Ever since the CEOs of the big three American carmakers rolled down the runway via the comforts of their luxury private planes, and then proceeded to beg Congress, and by extension the American taxpayers, for bailout money, flashy displays of extreme wealth have been considered bad form.
The public outcry that took place last week in protest against Citigroup’s plans to purchase the Dassault Falcon 7X, a $50 million corporate jet, resulted in a stern warning from President Obama.
Learning their lessons from these two public relations nightmares, many companies are now opting for a low-key approach that keeps them under the extravagance-detecting public radar.
Suffering the effects of the turning of tides against wealth-flaunting are the charter jet companies, who report considerably less bookings. Andrew Whitney, co-founder of FlyMeNow, a private aircraft charter company, said in a recent article published in The National that cancellations are on the rise, recently costing him more than £40,000.
London’s Luton airport has seen a 30 percent drop in traffic from private flights this past year. “We are back to the level of 2006. That is not a disaster—and it shows how things boomed in the past few years—but it is serious,” said Gary Lachlan, chief executive of the British Business and General Aviation Association, in the same article.
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