Booking Service Now Open To All Customers

It's out of beta... but will it work? This week, Virgin Charter announced its online marketplace is now open to the public, offering those looking for business charter operators another option for selecting their next flight.

Virgin Group launched a closed beta period for its charter website in June 2007, as ANN reported, with a small group of customers and providers. In October, Virgin expanded that offering by launching a Charter Member Program, offering access for selling, purchasing and booking charter flights on private aircraft on an invitation-only basis.

As of Monday, however, Virgin Charter's marketplace is free to join.

"Virgin Charter has brought tremendous innovation to the charter market," said Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson. "Virgin's brilliant customer service and aviation expertise combined with unprecedented technology prowess has resulted in a winning formula."

"Until now, booking on-demand charter has been a cumbersome process and flyers didn't always know what they were getting," added Virgin Charter CEO Scott Duffy. "We are bringing the power of Virgin to the industry and are now offering an entirely new way to book charter over the internet while setting new quality standards."

Virgin Charter also announced this week Travelocity Business is the exclusive launch business travel agency for Virgin Charter in the Travel Management Company space. Virgin Charter will provide charter solutions for Travelocity Business clients who want to fly private.

"Virgin Charter is a natural fit in our suite of corporate VIP and Meetings services," said Lesley Harris, president of Travelocity Business. "The notion of bringing the power of automation and online simplicity to a historically manual process like private aviation mirrors our approach to everyday account management. We look forward to working with Virgin Charter in the managed travel arena."

Virgin Charter has selected more than 100 charter operators -- including Aerojet Services, Avjet Corporation, Clay Lacy, DB Aviation, ExpressJet Corporate Aviation, FlightWorks, Hop-A-Jet, Jet Source, Key Air, Segrave Aviation, Sun Air Jets, The Air Group, and XOJET -- to offer their charter services online.

FMI: www.virgincharter.com