Given to fly

A new generation of 'air taxis' - small jets that ferry high-paying clients around on charter flights - is taking off in Poland.

The latest addition to the trend is airtaxi.pl, an aviation broker that recently relaunched its offer and is now offering bespoke flights from Poznań.

The firm is one of four private airlines in Poland to possess an Air Operator Certificate. It uses a fleet of four airplanes, owned by cooperative partners, which are based in Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław.

Joining this particular mile-high club is still a costly exercise - renting the aircraft costs around EUR 2,000 (zł.7,960) per hour plus airport taxes. According to Piotr Przybyła from airtaxi.pl, despite its high costs the company already operates several flights within Poland as well as flights to and from Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

About a dozen Poles own a top-class private jet, which can cost up to $4-6 (zł.13-19) million. However, most of those airplanes are registered outside Poland and most are rented to outside companies when not being used by their owners.

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

"The new business model should be targeted at Poland's businessman and top managers," said Sobczak. "If, for example, a contract in Russia needs to be signed and a group of managers should travel there for this purpose, it would make more sense to rent a plane for this journey so the time, which very often also means the cost, will be reduced.

The European market for air taxis is well behind the US, where, especially after September 11, private flights on small luxury crafts have become more popular. According to Sobczak, corporate clients are uncomfortable with the security procedures that they are subject to on regular commercial business-class flights.