Cessna Citation Mustang at Geneva airport hangar

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Blink air taxi service opens its base in Geneva Monday 21 September. Geneva was chosen as mainland Europe’s first base because of its central location within Europe, the difficulty business passengers here have in getting good connections, and the relatively high price of tickets, says Peter Leiman, one of Blink’s two founders and managing directors. Leiman explains that the Geneva base will allow the company to use the two planes based here to reduce costs even more.

The company has striven to keep costs low in its 15 months of operations since launch in London in 2008. The planes it flies are one of the reasons. Blink has a contract with Cessna for 30 Citation Mustang jets, a two-engined small jet which comes equipped with only 4 seats each. They are very safe and economical to fly, and being small, can land in places that bigger jets cannot, according to the company. The Mustang can land on a 1km airstrip.

No room for a flight attendant

The size of the plane is a good reason for considering the ecological aspects of flying too, the company says. Being smaller, it uses less fuel per passenger than a larger jet, only half-full with passengers, would. The ability to land in out-of-the-way places closer to the passenger’s final destination reduces passenger time spent travelling. And borrowing a page from the budget airlines, Blink keeps its planes in the air more hours than competitors, either commercial airlines that offer business class service or charter companies.

Prices, the company says, are competitive on a per passenger basis. A round-trip flight to London would cost about €1,275 per passenger, compared to €1,350 in business class on a commercial airline. Like a taxi, the plane is the client’s to fill as he sees fit, or not. But Blink emphasizes the flexibility of being able to fly from Geneva to London, with a stop-over in Zurich, and back home at the end of the day. No commercial airline offers that flexibilityat the price, the company says.

The Geneva operation will be a template, Leiman says, for additional bases in Europe. Within the next month, passengers will be able make online bookings, and Blink will take receipt of three to six new Mustangs next year, he says.

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