Ready to jet in to Davos for WEF?

One of the world’s most prestigious meetings in the global conference calendar returns to Davos in Switzerland 23-26 January 2018. The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) will bring business leaders from around the world to the Swiss resort, and Air Charter Service (ACS) jet hire company is predicting the event will see at least 1,000 private jet flights fly in over the five days. Andy Christie (pictured), group director for executive jets at ACS, says: “Unlike other popular events for private jets – such as the Super Bowl or Champions’ League final – WEF is unique for the industry in that we receive bookings from our offices all over the world, rather than just one or two locally. In the past couple of years, along with flights arranged through our European offices, we have had bookings from our Hong Kong, India and US operations – no other event has quite such a global appeal.” A breakdown of the private jet activity over the five days of last year’s forum shows that the four main airfields used by private jet clients attending Davos were Zürich, Dübendorf, St Gallen-Altenrhein and St Moritz. For the week of the forum there is an average 218 jet movements in and out. Top countries involved in terms of arrivals in and departures out of the airports were Germany, France and the UK. The US came in fourth spot with 41 arrivals and 51 departures. Russia and UAE were also in the top 10 most popular, out of more than 30 countries in total, according to ACS. Expensive heavy jets proved to be the most popular aircraft type last year, with Gulfstream GVs and Global Expresses both being used more than 100 times each. Christie adds: “With the length of some of the journeys, these slightly larger aircraft would have been needed, but with such wealthy individuals attending, they can afford to use such aircraft from wherever they were coming – as well as the element of larger aircraft being seen as a status symbol.”