FROM THE EDITOR ‘ou cannot open a newspaper or watch a news bulletin at the moment without finding references to economic crisis and global downturn. That makes good news and optimism all the more welcome, especially when they happen to be in the travel sector. One person who is seemingly feeling bullish regardless of the prevailing economic conditions is Tony Fernandes, CEO of Air Asia X, who is hoping to make a success of his low-cost, long-haul airline linking Europe and Asia. Fernandes talks to our business travel expert, Roger Collis, on page 22, and offers some interesting insights into his philosophy and his thoughts on emerging from a recession with brand strength enhanced. Another company that’s looking to steer successfully through the gloom = though at the opposite end of the market to Air Asia X ~is innovative European air taxi outfit, Blink, The company has started relatively small ~ it operates four Cossna Citation Mustang very light jets (VLJs) from Farnborough airport 40km from central London. The planes can accommodate up to four passengers and two pilots and are capable of forrying a full complement from London to Berlin. So far, so good, but there's more to the company than that. Its co-founders, Peter Leiman (29) and Cameron Ogden (81), mot at Harvard Business School and the idea grew from there. The pair were fortunate enough to source $30m-worth of funding from venture capitalists and other European investors back in 2007, prior to the dread credit crunch building up a head of steam. Blink’s now thinking big. The company has a further 26 Cessna Citation Mustangs in the pipeline which, upon delivery, will make it the world’s largest operator of the aircraft. ‘This plane's capabilities may be key to the whole projeet. Leiman says: ‘The aircraft is half the capital cost and 30 per cent cheaper to operate than the cheapest business jet.” Blink has also recruited some impressive talent to fly and maintain its fleot, including four of BA's most experienced training captains and the former chief engineer on Concorde. ‘Leiman points out the company has learned lessons from the low cost airline model, with high asset utilisation — his jets will be busy — and single fleot type, to make maintenance an easier task. ‘Our customers are the type of people who are looking for value for money and we can provide that,’ he adds. A seat on a London to Paris flight with Blink costs £550 ($800) plus landing fees. Ifa plane is filled with colleagues all heading to.a meeting then costs start to bear comparison with business class on a commercial fight. And, presumably, there are no issues with discussing sensitive matters onboard. There's more value to he had, Leiman adds, when you factor in the time-savings on offer with the service. Blink’s jets ean use 600 airports in Europe, many of them small and many of them well placed for where people need to got to. Ideal, he suggests, if your company has a regular need to get people to or from secondary cities ~ from, as he puts it, London to Eindhoven. Since launch, Blink has flown over 300 customer groups ranging from employees of FTSE 100 corporations to individual entrepreneurs. With the increase of aircraft numbers and the growing flexibility this adds, the airline hopes to grow numbers to between 2,000 and 3,000 groups in 2009. Providing the business traveller with value in straightened times, this could be one of the aviation success stories of, the year. om EE 7