First Class Airline Charter - Wings in the Blue

Back in 2006, amidst the eagerly awaited arrival of the very light jet with Honda, Cessna, Embraer, Eclipse and other aircraft manufacturers trying to beat the race, The Air Charter Guide’s front cover advertiser was Blue Wings, a German airline offering adhoc group charter flights with an Airbus 320.

Founder Fred Gevalt writes in his foreword, “Massively larger than our usual corporate offerings sits Blue Wings’ immaculate Airbus 320, suited for tour group travel of all kinds...A VIP fleet, with spacious room for a few privileged passengers, is in the planning stages. It is interesting to note that aircraft in this configuration are on the rise. And The Air Charter Guide now lists 80 VIP airliners worldwide. A scant ten years ago, there were probably no more than two dozen.” 

Large airliners and commercial airlines always played a big role in providing unscheduled group charter as well as individual VIP jet charter flights. Around the same time Blue Wings tried to grow the business, Germany’s Lufthansa started a dedicated Private Jet booking service. Other airlines like Emirates and Qatar opened executive charter sub-divisions and added dedicated private VIP charter aircraft to their fleet. While Lufthansa discontinued the private jet service in 2022 because the airline deemed the sector too economically small and specialized, exclusive large VIP airliners and heavy jets operated by commercial airline private jet divisions still cater to the rapidly expanding jet-setting executive jet travel market.

If you would like to charter VIP airliners check out Airliner Vip Charter Aircraft. If you are looking for group charter and operators offering aircraft with a seating capacity of 30 or more see Jet Airliner Charter Aircraft or contact a charter broker familiar with airliner availability worldwide, see Search Air Charter Brokers.

Jennifer Van Winkle from Sundtair with Shelli Hitchins from Aviation week by Informa.

Thanks to all of you who stopped by our booth at Air Charter Expo (ACE26) at London Biggin Hill Airport in September! We are very excited about the brand-new Air Charter Expo Regional – Europe that’ll be part of our excursion to Aero Friedrichshafen in 2027.

Next up you’ll find us in Las Vegas for NBAA-BACE October 20-22 at booth 525. Make sure to drop your card for the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses we’ll be raffling off when you pick up your shiny new copy of The Air Charter Guide print edition. Explore Aircraft Bluebook, AC-U-KWIK, the newly released 2027 Fleet & MRO Forecast, and Aviation Week by Informa’s full data & intelligence suite!

Safe travels!