India's Tata Group on Tuesday announced investing in 'BJETS', a business jet venture based on fractional ownership model that placed orders for 50 aircraft worth over Rs 2,400 crore (Rs 24 billion) at the ongoing Singapore Airshow.
The Tata's Indian Hotels Company will partner Singapore's Briley Group in the business - Asia's first private jet company that would sell fractional ownership of these planes, primarily to corporate houses.
BJETS said that it had placed orders for 20 new Hawker jets worth over $ 450 million with options to buy 10 more, along with a firm order for 20 Citation CJ2 Plus business jets valued at $ 150 million.
While the Briley Group is the majority shareholder in BJETS, the Indian Hotels Company, which runs the Taj Group of hotels, is the other "significant shareholder", BJETS CEO Mark Baier told PTI from Singapore.
"We have placed orders for 50 business jets worth over $ 600 million or Rs 2,400 crore (Rs 24 billion) to be delivered over a period of five years," he said. Baier said the first 15 business jets would be delivered by the end of this year.
Fractional ownership allows a member to acquire a fraction of an aircraft and pay a fraction of the fixed fees and yet have access to an entire fleet of identical planes. All aspects of running the aircraft are handled by the operator and the owner has to do nothing more than schedule his flight.