Bahrain 2012: VistaJet's vision for Middle East growth

At last year’s Dubai Airshow the Austrian company said it would dedicate one of its long-range Bombardier aircraft – likely to be a Challenger 850 – to its regional fleet because of rising demand for its charter services in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.  At that point the company said that Saudi Arabia was driving 70% of its traffic in the Gulf.

Last week VistaJet announced that it had started the second phase of its expansion into fast-growth developing markets, including the Middle East. The company’s strategy is underpinned by the ongoing and rapid growth in global commodity markets and the development of mining and other assets in remote locations.

VistaJet also believes that the fact a significant proportion of commodity and natural resource companies operating in today’s markets are founder-owned is creating a rapid growth of luxury aviation.

In 2012, VistaJet has prioritised a number of regions including the Gulf. Thomas Flohr, chairman said: “We have reached a major stage in our development and strategic expansion.”

VistaJet’s fleet of Bombardier aircraft is more than 30-strong, with a $2 billion order backlog, and is set to double by 2015.

For the year ended December 31 2011, VistaJet expects to record a 20% increase in passenger numbers and a 25% increase in revenues. According to the company, these trends are expected to continue.

Flohr concluded: “We expect demand to increase from across the region, particularly from UAE and Qatar, so that by end of 2012 I would see the Middle East representing around 15% of our revenue.”