Get onboard with Lunajets...

CEO of LunaJets Eymeric Segard cut his teeth in private banking at Merrill Lynch before working his way up the chain at Ogilvy in Mexico. It was there that he, along with a childhood friend, came up with the idea of creating a web platform to re-sell private jet empty leg flights – an innovative and very disruptive business model.

Despite being 2007, at the burst bubble of the financial crisis, his belief in the potential was enough: “I was so excited about the idea, three months later I moved with my wife and kids to Geneva to start up LunaJets. It has been the best professional decision of my life”.

Give us the elevator pitch for LunaJets?

LunaJets is the biggest independent private jet booking platform in Europe. We match our clients’ private jet requests against a database of 4,800 of the most recent private jets available for charter. Our mission is to offer the best service and the best prices – we obtain the best negotiated rates for our clients.

What are your key responsibilities as CEO?

I am a bit of a control freak, but my role is to ensure the delivery of our service, fast and well; to drive the vision of the company; and to develop services and partners to diversify, complement and enhance our offer.

How does LunaJets differ to the competition?

Our offer is independent and market neutral while most of our competitors are affiliated with jet operators and offer restricted options.

How has business been recently?

In a stagnating market, our business has been very good as LunaJets offers what the market wants: independent advice, personal client focussed service and the best prices.

We have organised flights for pets, highly classified documents, diplomatic peace negotiations

How has Brexit affected you?

The UK market has been poor in general recently with market data showing a drop of 5-10% overall. Various macro-economic factors may cause this slow down, and Brexit is definitely one of them, together with commercial trade scares, and a weakening GBP.

As London is the biggest European market, the whole industry is suffering from current charter client uncertainties. But we are confident it will recover soon, and are expanding our presence with our office and full-time staff in Mayfair.

Without naming names, what are some of the most extravagant requests you’ve had?

Whilst protecting the privacy of our clients, I can share that we have organised flights for pets (dogs, cats, hamsters, snakes and birds), for highly classified time-sensitive documents, for winning teams returning home with the trophy, for diplomatic peace negotiations, for business roadshows including 13 flights between Monday 8am and Friday 7pm, for wedding proposals, for honeymoons, for surprise destinations, round-the-world trips…

What’s the most popular jet from the current available fleet?

The jets most favoured by our clients are the Embraer Phenom 300 in the light jet category, the Bombardier Challenger 350 (mid size) and the Gulfstream G650 (long range). The ones offering the best value-for-size-for-money are the Cessna XLS (super light) and the Embraer Legacy 650 (large jet). But some clients only want Dassault Falcons – this is why we want to stay independent from any market pressure, to guarantee our clients what best suits them.

What are you looking forward to in 2020?

We never lose sight of the fact that this industry is cyclical and any macroeconomic event has an immediate impact on client willingness to fly private, or just fly. We will focus on gaining more market share, as we truly believe we are the perfect platform for clients and jet operators, to match their demand and supply. And we want to stay independent to guarantee our clients’ interests. 

For more information, go to lunajets.com