Air taxis for high flyers

A new generation of "air taxis" - small jets that ferry high-paying clients around on charter flights, are springing up in Poland.

The latest addition to the trend is airtaxi.pl, an aviation broker that relaunched its offer and is now offering flights from several of Poland's airports.

The firm is one of four private airlines in Poland to possess the Air Operator Certificate. It has now a fleet of a dozen airplanes, owned by its partners. The planes, which are mostly rented by big, international companies, are based in Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław as well as at some German airports.

This kind of plane service is still a costly exercise - a return flight from Warsaw to Moscow which can take up to 34 passengers, would costs the client around EUR 19,000 (zł.73.3). However, according to Piotr Przybyła from airtaxi.pl, despite the high costs, the company already operates several flights within Poland as well as flights to and from Russia, Hungary, the Baltic countries as well as the United Arab Emirates.

"In case of flights within Europe, one of our planes can be ready to take off within two hours from receiving the flight order from our customer," said Krzysztof Maruszewski from airtaxi.pl. "To be ready for the trans-Atlantic flight, one day is needed for preparation."

Grzegorz Soczak, the editor-in-chief of Skrzydlata Polska, a Polish aviation magazine, says that that there is increasing demand for air-taxi services, but prospective clients need to understand all the benefits and conveniences of this kind of transport.

However, despite its growth, the European market for air taxis is still well behind the US market, where, especially after September 11, private flights on small luxury aircraft have become more popular.