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    The Aviation Advocacy Blog

    A cornucopia of news, opinion, views, facts and quirky bits that need to be talked about. Join our community and join in the conversation on all matters aviation. The blog includes our weekly round-up of the bits of European aviation you may otherwise have missed – That Was The Week That Was

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The iTunes of aviation gets funding to fly

October 3: It was in February this year that PrivateFly was awarded travel website of the year and described by the judges as the iTunes of aviation. The comparison is a bit of a stretch, beyond the basic business model of aggregating availability through a single online platform. But the business aviation industry is so lamentably old fashioned in its channels to market – especially B2C, still largely dominated by hundreds of independent brokers – that PrivateFly’s trip search, pricing and booking platform has been making a splash since it launched in 2008. Most of its business-to-date has booked offline, partly because charter flights are pricey and by nature often complicated, requiring a friendly and expert discussion. In part, too, PrivateFly’s website hasn’t yet developed the usability and sophistication to manage the typical business jet user’s concerns and queries. A number of competing ventures have meanwhile launched to be the first genuine equivalent of an expedia in business aviation – FlyRuby, FlyVictor and US-based Social Flights come to mind. But PrivateFly still leads the field in brand recognition, and as of last week procured the funding – £2m from 8 investors – that might allow it to prove its potential. A major target will be smart phone presence – PrivateFly’s challenge is to achieve a seamless and constant intermediation between operators’ spare capacity and marginal pricing, and users’ dynamic demand for trip quotes and booking.

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