Gilles Ménard, Managing Director France of Air Partner

What are the latest developments in business aviation?

Gilles Ménard - The profession is experiencing exceptional growth, largely due to the constraints now inherent in scheduled commercial air transport: congested access to major airports, delays, tedious security checks. Many business people find these constraints unbearable.

Does incentive travel contribute to your airline brokerage business?

G. M. - This is the second pillar of growth in business air transport. Incentives have been making a comeback for almost two years now, particularly in the medical sector. We are also seeing demand from major groups for incentive travel. Last year, the events sector recorded an increase of 30 % for our company.

What are the most popular destinations?

G. M. - Europe remains the main focus for business aviation, with destinations within an average 2? hour flight and strong demand for Scandinavia and Central Europe. For incentive travel, the great classics remain Marrakech, Malta, Seville and Central Europe, such as Prague.

What are your new products?

G. M. - Air Partner is committed to quality of service and reliability, rather than advertising the best prices on the market. That said, we offer our customers flexible pricing solutions. We have designed the JetCard, which offers 25 hours of unlimited flight time. Once the card is acquired, the customer pays nothing more. The programme was launched in 2007 in the UK and is available this year in France. We have also launched a programme to offset CO2 emissions.