If there’s one thing we found out during the pandemic, it is that private jets were one way for the rich and famous to avoid traveling with the potentially infectious plebeian classes. This is perhaps why there is still a market for tech companies to enter into this rarefied industry. But more seriously, there are just more wealthy people around, anyway, making this market a growing one.
Mirai Flights, a London-based service for instant booking of charter flights, is benefitting from this renewed interest in private travel, having now raised a $3 million investment round led by Xploration Capital. The company plans to use the funds to scale the service in the U.K., Europe, United Arab Emirates and the CIS states. Mirai originally came out of Georgia (the country).
The Mirai Flights app is available in 63 countries and operates with eight private airlines. Mirai uses a last-mile model, matching supply and demand, utilizing empty flight legs and thereby reducing carbon emissions of flights by making it more efficient to return a jet to its base location. And if you can afford it, you can book a flight for up to €300,000 in one click.
Irakli Litanishvili, co-founder and CEO of Mirai Flights said in a statement: “We estimate that the market for commercial flights on private aircraft is up to 300,000 flights a year or approximately $10 billion in the U.K. and Europe. Our aim is to cover 4% of this market and provide up to 12,000 commercial flights per year in the U.K. and Europe in 2023, connecting 150 private jets to the app with the expected turnover of $240 million.”
Mirai’s platform calculates the cost of the flight for the client on the basis of the operator’s data, the activity of flights in Europe over the past three years, and the demand at a particular point of departure.
“We are targeting emerging markets and the business aviation industry is a great example of a highly fragmented space with largely antiquated consumer-facing technology,” said Igor Kim, managing partner at Xploration Capital.
However, Mirai is not alone as it competes in this market with PrivateFly, FLYXO, Opes Jet and Victor, to name just a few.
