Private aviation platform Jettly in recent months has been transitioning to a new booking platform amid record demand for the sector.

Jettly first launched in 2016 following “more of a traditional brokerage model,” with advisors working behind the scenes to process booking requests for flights, said CEO Justin Crabbe. With the new booking platform, it is transitioning to an “open marketplace platform,” building on the relationships it has made with private aviation operators over the past several years, he said.

“The old way of doing things was that you had to call your local broker and wait for the call back while your broker farms out the flight request to a number of operators,” Crabbe said. “There was nothing that was digitized in an open-faced marketplace, like you would search on Expedia or Airbnb.”

Through the platform, travelers can search flights by origin and destination and see a list of available providers and prices. From there, they can filter by preferred criteria, such as aircraft type, fuel stops safety ratings or amenities such as lavatories on board, and book through the tool. It also features a display detailing cancellation policies, with a timeline bar that shows what the travelers are liable for within various cancellation windows.

The platform has an inventory of about 15,000 to 20,000 aircraft that are searchable at any given time, Crabbe said.

Users have the option to pay either a 10 percent booking fee for one-off trips or monthly or annual fees for regular access to the inventory. Bookings tend to run at about 60 to 65 percent business travel versus leisure, he said.

Jettly’s transition comes as demand for private aviation is skyrocketing. Supplier Wheels Up, for example, late last year said it was seeing more demand than it was able to service, particularly as the industry also is facing supply chain challenges and pilot shortages. Crabbe said Jettly recently had a record-setting 2,500 requests in a single day, compared with the typical rate of 15,000 to 20,000 requests per month, and keeping pace with supply remains a challenge.

“Demand is so high with Covid-19 and omicron, and it was astronomical throughout the holiday season,” Crabbe said. “There’s a finite number of aircraft available, and they’re typically flown with one or two people on board, and once an aircraft is taking off, it’s gone.”