Qatar Airways' private charter arm adds a bespoke plan for business jets
Qatar Airways aims to carve out a larger slice of the business jet market – as well as growing the overall size of that decidedly premium pie – with the launch of an innovative program which lets travellers pre-purchase flight time on the Qatar Executive private jet fleet at a fixed hourly rate.
Christened the Diamond Agreement, it offers what Qatar Executive’s Mark Hardman considers a welcome degree of certainty in these uncertain times.
The all-inclusive flat hourly rate comes with guaranteed availability (for a 72-hour advance booking) without any black-out dates or minimum annual usage, plus an unlimited carry-over of hours from year to year.
“The Diamond Agreement is really about simplifying private jet travel,” tells Hardman Executive Traveller.
“Historically there's basically been two products” in the corporate and private jet charter market, explains Hardman, a 30-year veteran of the industry, “and the Diamond Agreement literally takes the best parts of both and combines them into this new product.”
“On-demand or ad hoc charters offer flexibility without commitment, although the downside is that there’s no guaranteed availability when you want on a given day, and the pricing is also different for every trip.”