EBACE 2008, Blink to Deploy 45 Mustangs as Air Taxis Liss “Imagine a world where you blink and you're there.” This isthe slogan of Europe’ frst VLJ air taxi company, Blink Led, which, if you'll excuse the pun, has itseyes firmly focused on what could bean extremely lucrative market. London-based, iis ielding the fist ofits 45 Citation Mustangs here at Geneva, with its inaugural revenue flight scheduled ina few weeks’ ime. Blink is offering its Mustangs as two-pilot, four-passenger, ‘minijet shuttles’ to Europe-based corpora tions requiring regular uplift. According to Blink, its customer list ‘covers companies from the UK top FTSE 100 down to small firms ‘employing as few as six to 20 people. ‘Once the fleet reaches critical mass the company plans to add ad hoc air taxi operations Blinks the brainchild of Ameri-~ can Peter Leiman and the UK's craft olookoverits operations with a brief to save money and improve Bciencies “We saw the VLJ as a disruptive technology that would change the ‘way people traveled,” sud managing director Peter Leiman, “The ques: “The question was, if Wal-Mart were to buy and integrate a sub-fleet of VLIs, could they save money and make their employees more productive? We demonstrated they could save 25% on their existing travel budget, and even afford to fly employees earning less than $50,000 per annum on the aircraft” Peter Leiman, managing director, Blink Ltd Cameron Ogden, who met at Harvard Business School. They have already raised $30 million from pri- ‘The pair was asked by Wal-Mart (which has the largest corporate fleet inthe world with 28 Bombardier aie- Blink’s many Mustangs willbe the backbone of a regional, network-based ar taxi sorvice operated by TAG Aviation. tion was, if Wal-Mart were to buy and integrate a sub-fleet of VLJs, could they save money and make their employees more productive? ‘We demonstrated they could save 25% on their existing travel budget, and even afford to fly employees ‘American Petor Leiman and British Cameron Ogden have raised some $30 milion from private investors for Blink caring en than 50,00 per annum onthe sia” his led cman and Ogden to form Binks etonlly operated peor sitnsrie hch will evolve and stretch aeross Earop, ged yt eu cent The Mosang ec willbe oper axed by TAG Aviation UK) Lia Famberough unde ir Oper toe Cente “We like Farnborough ast isat the ereofourcstomer base, and wel bul op the newer depen conn need of" Leiman od Seo Nes “Blink wl for business = sereioes tmnt wih igh comand ineficient scheduling of pee eters: destin ne ps ie, meee hai ps fhe ight jerk syed competes Eerope es oa Bit Always Sere eee IO LEADERS quoting per aircraft and not sub- dividing the airplane, so this simplifies the operation. If you book 21 days ‘out you'll geta much lower fare than ifyou book the day before you fly— just like the low-cost airlines “This is purely illustrative and doesn't say anything about our eus- tomer base. Bu just take a company like Dell, which has a European headquarters at Bracknell, en min- utes from Farnborough. They have facilities in Montpelier, France. “There are no direct flights between London and Montpellier. A roundtrip takes three days by scheduled airlines. We would come in virwally a corporate shuttle and ‘would offer two recurn trips a day if required.” Like the low-cost airlines, high aircraft utilization is atthe center ‘of Blink’ business plan, which calls for around 1,000 flight hours per “Mustang, per year, rather than 400- 600 hours per year currently flown by today’ light jets. ‘This will be achieved by mini mizing and shortening the length of ddeadheads by having ‘A’ bases (with some infrastructure) and ‘B" bases (without any regular infrastructure) across sub-regions of Europe. ‘This way ic intends to maintain a low-cost structure and improve air~ craft availability by flying shorter ddeadheads within these sub-regions Blink representatives can be con tacted at their aicraftin the EBACE static aircraft park, —Aike ies ‘74° Mav 20.2008 wwwaaviationweek.com/shownews