Fly First Class Private Jets, a charter service offered through C Travel?s sister company CMS Ltd., has found an emerging market for business travellers looking to avoid long lines and control their own schedules.

C Travel chief executive Carl Paiva said executives dislike having to check in a few hours in advance and being herded on to flights and this has led them to look for alternatives

?Air travel today is no longer a luxury and is certainly not widely expensive or extravagant. High end corporates feel they are spending a fair amount of money on the commercial carriers for very little value,? Mr. Paiva said.

He said executives view private jet charters as an alternative because they can check in 15 to 20 minutes in advance of a flight (compared to two hours required by an airline), quick pre-flight security clearance and being able to customise aircraft.

?After much research we found the right aviation company to understand the potential of Bermuda,? he said.

Last year, the Bermuda travelling public purchased $120 million worth of airline sales, an impressive amount of money for just 63,000 residents, Mr. Paiva said.

?Fly First Class Private Jets (a US corporation) were willing to review the Island?s potential and in September we had a soft launch. Our vision is to have our own aircraft in Bermuda.

?Right away we started getting calls, we have done several quotes and trips and we have weekly regulars customers travelling on the private jets. The service has been successful beyond our expectations and we have yet to do a hard launch.?

CMS (Contemporary Market Solutions) has access to a fleet of 14 corporate jet aircraft, allowing executives to enjoy private jet services between the major financial centres of New York City, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., the Cayman Islands and other destinations.

CMS corporate manager Tom Murray said: ?Private jet charters was an opportunity to diversify our business because a lot of our corporate clients had come to us in the past trying to get to the Cayman Island?s without having to go through New York or Miami and asked us for an easier alternative by way of private jets.

?The key obstacle we came up against was that there isn?t a whole lot of planes based in Bermuda. We found a solution through an operator in the US with a high safety standard, offering competitive quotes.?

Fly First Class Private Jets? exclusive aircraft operator for this charter programme is Segrave Aviation, based in Kinston, North Carolina.

Segrave Aviation is an FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) Part 135 certificate holder, which is the industry?s required safety regulatory standard.

?We have been very impressed with the growth so far and there is a lot of potential we haven?t tapped into yet. Apart from the corporates, we have some very high end luxury clients that expressed interest in using private jets for their own families.?

?We have been able serve both Bermuda and commuters coming to the Island as there are people, particularly from the US, that like to travel to Bermuda moving back and forth for work.?