'Turks' Mentality Mars Development Of Private Jet Chartering In Turkey'

Turkey is way behind its counterparts in Europe in private jet and air ambulance chartering because of the way Turks perceive this business, Cenk Gökan, the general manager of Plures Air, an aviation company particularly known for its VIP and air ambulance chartering services, has said.

First of all, he said, pilots in Turkey have not improved their skills in these particular areas, adding that “they want to not fly.”

For this particular reason, Gökan favors opportunities overseas rather than focusing on Turkey as the mentality in the country is far from professional. Foreigners, beyond all, appreciate air chartering much more than Turks, said Gökan, explaining his rationale for setting his sights abroad, especially for VIP services. “Second, you make more money there, and third, operations are much easier when serving foreign customers,” he said.

He mentioned an example to illustrate the difference between a Turkish customer and a foreigner. A couple hired an Airbus 319 for $580,000 for a flight from Los Angeles to Jeddah. They called Gökan to tell him they have a six-week-old kitten with them. Gökan said the plane would make a technical landing in London and the airport rules in this city only allow cats that are older than 12 weeks. When informed about it, the customers complied without hesitation. Turkish customers in a similar situation would object to such limitations and insist that there will not be any problem or that he has to somehow sort the problem out, Gökan asserted, adding that Turks see such restrictions as a meaningless obstacles and a failure of good service after paying half a million dollars for this service.

“Turkish companies don't usually rent planes for themselves but for their foreign guests, and in such cases, I do everything to disintermediate the Turks since they always see the things according to their unique perspective,” he said.

Another complaint he has about Turks is the superiority of Turkish private jet owners. They do not get the fact that those who rent jets are usually much wealthier than jet owners but they do not find it feasible to purchase their own jets and spend time and energy struggling to maintain and renting it or handling the problems of its pilots and crew, Gökan noted. There are about 120 private jets in Turkey and the prices they are seeking for rents are at least TL 6,000 per hour. Their owners are also usually capricious and not professional enough to respond to requests, he added.

Aviation is a completely global business without any borders, says Gökan, describing the nature of his business, and he thus relishes the opportunity to think and act globally without restricting himself to the limitations of the resources available only in a domestic market. This provides his company with a large space for maneuvering. “We have hit the road aiming for recognition not only at home but also on a global scale,” said Gökan.

One of the features of his company he boasts the most about is that Plures Air provides services at every single subsection of the market, including but not limited to ticketing, VIP chartering, air freighting and ambulance chartering.

Despite this comprehensive outlook at the business, however, Gökan rules out the possibility of owning their own airplanes. “We are not ready for this and we do not think we will. Our business has two faces, one facing the customer and the other operations. We are in between these two. We manage our operations properly while giving customers accurate information. But when it comes to purchasing a jet, it will require us to engage in full one-on-one communication with pilots and crew and to assume full responsibility of them and flights. I don't want to be involved in these areas,” he said. “I want to serve my customers boneless fish. Customers are simply not interested in your problems,” he added.

Plures Air earned $7 million last year and by the end of this year the number will likely surpass $10 million. Despite the substantial annual growth, however, Gökan isn't interested in growing his company bigger. He likens the company to a small döner restaurant that is famous for the distinct texture of its meat but fails to replicate the same taste when it opens a second place in a different location. “We don't want to expand to another shop. We may grow in terms of operations and business but not in terms of structure,” he said.

When the company first opened three years ago, the majority of operations involved the transportation of patients and injured people from Middle Eastern countries in particular to different locations around the world with better medical treatment opportunities. This has changed since then, with all operations of the company contributing more or less equally to the overall revenues. But over the course of the last couple of months in particular, especially since clashes resumed in Libya, the air ambulance services of the company have again accelerated. In one-and-a-half months, the company organized 70 flights to this country, for instance.

In no country around Turkey, including even the Russian Federation, is there even a single air ambulance and this is the niche that Plures Air had stepped in to fill in the first place. Furthermore, Turkey's visa regime makes the country a preferable destination for this service, said Gökan.

Gökan said the conflicts emerging from the political and social quagmire in Middle Eastern countries have greatly contributed to the prospering air ambulance business. And currently, the best customer of Air Plures is the Libyan government.

İbrahim Türkmen (Cihan/Today's Zaman)