Fly Aeolus is a Belgian limited liability partnership ( BV) which offers private jet flights in the form of an

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

under a fractional ownership model. The company was founded in 2009 in the city of

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, where it still has its headquarters. Other office locations are located in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Fly Aeolus is the largest Cirrus SR-22 operator in Europe and flies on-demand to a total of 1,600 airports and airfields on the continent. Among them, Fly Aeolus has aircraft bases in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Semur-en-Auxois Semur-en-Auxois () is a Communes of France, commune of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department in eastern France. The politician François Patriat, the engineers Edmé Régnier L'Aîné (1751–1825) and Émile Dorand (1866-1922), and th ...

(France),

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

Kulmbach Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town, once a stronghold of the Principality of Bayreuth, is renowned for its University of Life Sciences, a branch of the University of Bayreuth, the massive Plasse ...

, Schönhagen,

Husum Husum (, ) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home of the annual i ...

and

Strausberg Strausberg () is a Town#Germany, town in Brandenburg, in eastern Germany, located east of Berlin. With a population of about 27,000 it is the largest town in the district of Märkisch-Oderland. History Strausberg was founded ''circa'' 1240, and ...

(Germany).

History

Fly Aeolus was founded in 2009 by Stefaan Ghijs and Vincent Wigmans. Ghijs discovered low-cost private jet flying in the form of an air taxi as a

niche market A niche market is the subset of the market on which a product is appealed to a small group of consumers. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the ...

during his master's degree in

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

. Wigmans previously worked in a private jet maintenance company. It was only in 2009 that their partnership as such was officially established. The first flight of the service provider Fly Aeolus took place two years later from Antwerp, Belgium to

Vichy Vichy (, ; ) is a city in the central French department of Allier. Located on the Allier river, it is a major spa and resort town and during World War II was the capital of Vichy France. As of 2021, Vichy has a population of 25,789. Known f ...

in France. Following this success, the company continued to develop. The aircraft fleet was expanded to other countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands. The initial west-northern European area of operations was extended to the entire continent. Since 2015 Fly Aeolus operates in cooperation with the Belgian air taxi company SkyCab.

Business Model

The model of an air taxi resembles the taxi industry but in the area of private aviation. The service is based on a

fractional ownership Fractional ownership is a method in which several unrelated parties can share in, and mitigate the risk of, ownership of a high-value tangible asset, usually a jet, yacht or piece of resort real estate. It can be done for strictly monetary reason ...

model. Hence customers are joint owners of the Cirrus fleet. The actual private owners, on the other hand, make their aircraft available and receive a commission for every hour flown. Fly Aeolus' aircraft and commercially qualified pilots are distributed in the north-west of Europe. The use of the Cirrus SR-22 aircraft enables landing on small airfields. The concept of Fly Aeolus B.V. aims thereby to save the costs and save time for the traveller. Fly Aeolus offers also jet card membership programs which allow their members to pay an average 5-10% less for flights than the retail rate for non-members. In 2019, Fly Aeolus launched an aircraft sales and acquisition division next to its existing

service: Fly Aeolus Aircraft Sales and Acquisitions.

Fleet

Considered by the COPA (Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association) and AOPA ( Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association) as one of the safest single engine aircraft in general aviation thanks to the use of CAPS (

Cirrus Airframe Parachute System The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) is a whole-plane ballistic parachute recovery system designed specifically for Cirrus Aircraft's line of general aviation light aircraft including the SR20, SR22 and SF50. The design became the fi ...

), Fly Aeolus has a standardised fleet of Cirrus SR-22 aircraft. Including the pilot, 4 passengers can be transported in the single piston aircraft. With 15 Cirrus SR-22 aircraft in operation, Fly Aeolus is the largest Cirrus provider in Europe.

References

{{Portal bar, Transport, Aviation 2009 establishments in Belgium Companies based in Antwerp Charter airlines