Air charter firm sees high growth in ’18

Aviation startup firm PhilJets —the country’s fast-growing private aircraft charter business—is looking to grow more aggressively in 2018 after having doubled its fleet size last year to respond to strong market demand.

In a statement, the company said it also surpassed its revenue target of P160 million for last year, ending 2017 with close to P200 million in gross sales, even though its expenditures also rose significantly due to staff training expenses, higher overhead and increases in maintenance and operating costs.

PhilJets started 2017 with its entry into the business jet segment adding one Cessna Citation XLS+ to its fleet and ended the year with the addition of an additional Cessna Citation jet.

“This confirms the company’s plan to play a role in the region’s business aviation scene,” company chair and founder Thierry Tea said. “PhilJets has also been working on upgrading its license capability from civil aviation authority to evolve from nonscheduled domestic to nonscheduled international, a necessity when entering the jet market.”

With its fifth anniversary to be celebrated this year, the business aviation operator aims to add more aircraft to its expanding fleet to cater to its growing customers base, both local and international, he said.

From having only six aircraft in 2016 to 11 aircraft under management by end-2017, the asset value under the portfolio of PhilJets increased to more than P3.8 billion, which was quadruple the level it had in the previous year. The latest addition to the fleet were two helicopters (one Bell 407 GX and one Airbus H145) and three fixed-wing aircraft (one Bombardier Challenger 350 and two Cessna Citation XLS+).

PhilJets plans to add up to five more aircraft to its fleet—bringing its asset value to more than P4.5 billion—to increase its capacity and better serve customers at the different segments of the market.

“We need both lighter single-engine and lighter twin-engine helicopter in our fleet as well as a good twin-engine turboprop fixed wing,” PhilJets charter head Choy Elciario said.