Jetfly Air

Thursday it was a Thursday morn and I went the close route from my motel to Denham Airport in Buckinghamshire. The Jetfly Lounger is opposite the suitably designated Biggles Café, where I met my fellow passengers shortly before 8 a.m. for a private flight to Frankfurt. There are no queues, no identity checks (I had sent a preliminary copy of my passport), no bodyscan, no luggage checks, no wait... or, to put it more plainly, no trouble.

The most important advantage of a private flight is undoubtedly the amount of free space you get, the amount of free space you spend and the comfort of the whole flight adventure. The Jetfly lounges in Denham are rare to use, as most Jetfly operators use their services by just going directly to the aircraft and getting on.

Jetfly currently has a portfolio of 19 Pilatus PC-12s, a single-engine turbo-prop with seven typical co-owners each, and buys approximately two of these each year to keep pace with increasing market demands. It is the largest airplane you will see in Denham; it is a airplane that offers personality and convenience, but its main benefit is that it can touch down on shorter take-off and landing strips as it is able to travel at very low speed.

It is very attractive because it means that you can arrive in far more places than in many other forms of personal air travel so that your passenger can get nearer to their destinations. The use of smaller airport and aerodrome can also be much more cost effective - for example, Denham Airport charges only 60, while Farnborough Airport is only 30 mile away, close to 700 pounds.

Back to the Pilatus PC-12.... this plane has room for a group of 10 persons (pilot, co-pilot and 8 passengers), although the plane we visited was designed for only 6 persons with two rear seating positions to make the overall event more convivial. From Denham with a Pilatus PC-12 to Frankfurt it takes 1h 45m.

The new Pilatus PC-24, which Jetfly will be using from 2017, will bring this period nearer to one hours. So before we knew it, we made our way down to Frankfurt with the rather gray shadows of London, replaced by the much blueer sky of Frankfurt. We landed at Frankfurt Egelsbach airport very pleasantly thanks to the abilities of our always smiling German pilots and his co-driver from France.

For this journey I traveled with only a small piece of carry-on baggage, but for those with suitcases the baggage was collected from the tail of the airplane. It was also a good occasion to get a side glance at the inside of the plan. We arrived just as easily as we left, because the personnel from the airfield picked us up from the airplane to inspect our passes, a car going to the airstrip, and to the stairs of the airplane to take us to our first stop - a vine on the edge of Frankfurt.

I was completely spoiled for returning to Denham the next morning - it was my anniversary and a fizzy bubble had been very nicely arranged...as if Jetfly flight wasn't already luxury enough! Jetfly flight was indeed a delight and the Pilatus PC-12 was very comfy.

This is not an aircraft that can be chartered - you have to own or share one, so this is a very special sales argument and one that opens up a whole range of possibilities. Therefore, Jetfly is not a complete package deal for most aircraft owner, but an added benefit for them, giving the passenger the versatility they cannot get from many commercial aircraft companies.

Publication: This tour was hosted by Jetfly in collaboration with Breeze by lebua - the latest addition to the Frankfurt dining world.