Want A Private Jet? Name Your Price

An on-demand private jet app may seem like a service reserved for the richest of the rich. But JetMe, which offers private jet booking, wants to make itself at least a little more available to the masses with a new “Name Your Price” tool.

The new tool, launched Thursday (April 23), lets users of the mobile booking tool name the price they are willing to pay to secure a ride on a private jet. JetMe’s service includes a mechanism that informs users how likely they are to actually secure that price, meaning the average consumer should be a bit realistic about catching ultra-low cost private flights.

While the firm has already raised $400,000, according to TechCrunch, JetMe is reportedly in efforts to raise an additional $1.5 million from venture capitalists. The startup aims to disrupt a sector that has remained largely unchanged for decades, according to the company’s CEO Dmitry Romanyukha, who recently told reporters that the industry’s high costs can be attributed to often empty flights and brokers hiding fees to secure steady commission.

Astonishingly, JetMe is not the only startup working to disrupt the private air charter market. In what some called the “Uber for Private Jets,” Victor launched operations earlier this year as a U.K.-based, on-demand private jet booking service. It most recently launched its mobile app for iOS last March. The company had also just raised $8 million to launch operations.

At the time, Victor CEO Clive Jackson echoed Romanyukha’s sentiments about a lack of transparency in the private air charter industry. “I saw a gap in the market where consumers were being kept in the dark when it comes to jet charter,” the executive said.

Yet another firm is BlackJet, which launched in 2012 in the U.S., though it has largely been quiet in recent years.

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