Air Partner, a world leading provider of private aviation services, has expanded its market reach with the opening of new bases in Turkey and Hong Kong. The new ventures, selected as exciting new and emerging markets, began trading last month. They will meet the needs of Air Partner’s client base, which continues to grow, despite the recession.
Air Partner Turkey, located in Istanbul, will be a new avenue of business for the global air charter company’s private jet activity, including its unique and popular pre-paid 25-hour JetCard scheme which has seen early success in the Middle East. JetCard was recently bolstered with two new categories (Very Light Jet and Super Mid Size). As a result the selection of jets on offer to charter is the widest available of any jet card today and these two new categories are available to Middle East cardholders when they fly within Europe.
The Turkey office will also be able to call on a wide range of jets for charter, mirroring the activity of other Air Partner offices around the world. It will also be the sales representative for Air Partner’s Commercial Jet Division, which charters aircraft from 20 to 500 seats for groups of every size. It will also handle all air cargo activities, an important and growing market in the region.
Air Partner Turkey is headed by Serkan Topcu, formerly of cargo logistics company Schenker Logistics in Istanbul. He is joined by Emir Ozdabak and Gunnes Nomaler, both of whom have a wealth of experience in aviation charter.
Dubai-based Kevin Ducksbury, Director Middle East and Asia, commented: “The creation of a new base in Turkey fits within the Air Partner Group’s strategy to strengthen our presence in the Middle East and Asia regions, while Istanbul is ideally located as the bridge between our established operations in Europe and our growing ventures in the Middle East.”
Hong Kong is key market for air cargo
Air Partner’s opening in Hong Kong is another strategic move and this base will be focusing on freight charter activity. Richard Smith, Director of Group Freight, said: “Hong Kong is renowned as a strong market for air cargo and our presence there bolsters our existing freight departments in the UK, France, Germany, USA and the Middle East.”
He added: “In response to a short ‘peak period’ late last year, we operated a series of charters from Hong Kong which underlined there is demand in the region which we can now capitalise on. Now, we can offer clients a high quality service with local expertise.”
In Hong Kong Air Partner is represented by WAI Asia, a leading Hong Kong GSA. WAI is headed by Keith Lo who will promote Air Partner’s freight business throughout the region.
Email addresses are: hongkong@airpartner.com and turkey@airpartner.com.
