Artificial intelligence is already cutting down the time it takes to charter private jets, and now one British aviation firm has made the entire process available through a 24/7 WhatsApp AI chat.
London-based EnterJet, which says it handles around 900 charters a month through a broker-free online process, completed its first WhatsApp-only booking via its AI agent ‘Celeste’ this summer, Spear’s can exclusively reveal.
EnterJet’s 25-year-old founder, Charles Robinson, spent a year developing the function that allows busy clients to use their phone’s existing messaging service, rather than downloading and repeatedly logging into a separate app.
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The WhatsApp flight booking was made at 3am and cost the client $13,000, which Robinson claims would have been 5 to 10 per cent more through a traditional broker, who he points out, may not be available at 3am.
‘As the [AI] exchange is grounded in hard data, not improvisation, availability and pricing come directly from operators in real time, and flight details reflect the client’s written instructions; Celeste isn’t guessing at either,’ says Robinson.
‘Our team oversees Celeste and steps in on anything that calls for human judgement. So the room for it to go wrong is much the same as any charter booking; the difference is speed, not a loss of control.’
Robinson, who entered the industry at just 17 and founded EnterJet in 2024, said that in this instance the WhatsApp booking process took 46 minutes – 43 minutes of which involved the client considering options. Once they accepted, the booking was confirmed in under 90 seconds, with the flight briefing PDF sent to the WhatsApp thread.
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Earlier this year, 30-year-old US aviation company Elevate Jet introduced its own proprietary AI agent ‘Ruby’ through an app that gives clients the option to match their trip requests to aircraft with instant pricing and booking. Its CEO, Greg Raiff said the app ‘changes everything’.
‘In seconds, clients can see pricing, select the right aircraft and book with confidence,’ Raiff said at its launch.
[See also: Inside the choppy multi-million dollar business of superyacht broking]
Jet-chartering ‘a personal experience’
But as with most things AI, there’s polarisation – with both enthusiastic adoption … and avoidance.
Matt Feldon of boutique private jet broker Smart Aviation was sceptical: ‘We use AI [in some aspects of the day-to-day running of the business], but chartering a private jet is a very personal thing to the client.
‘I don’t think clients would be overly happy. AI is good, but doesn’t have the empathy of a human.’ However, he agreed that the process was likely to win over certain audiences.
What about a 3am booking request? ‘We, like others, would have somebody on call round the clock, and confirm a booking in anything between 15 minutes and an hour,’ but, he added, brokers like Smart Aviation are dependent upon an operator being responsive.
James Farley, co-CEO of flyvictor.com, said AI would undoubtedly have a place in private aviation, but added: ‘We do not see AI agents interfacing directly with our clients as the future of private jet charter. Our clients value the high-touch, highly personal service we provide, and we believe that human relationship is fundamental to the experience.
‘Discretion is fundamental to the private aviation experience, and our clients expect a high degree of confidentiality around their travel, preferences and personal information. Any use of AI therefore needs to be carefully controlled and never come at the expense of that trust.
‘We have a number of high-profile clients who have founded or pioneered AI technologies themselves, so it would be fair to assume they might be more comfortable interacting with an AI agent than others.
‘However, our experience is that even the most technologically sophisticated clients continue to place significant value on the human relationship that sits at the heart of our service.’
EnterJet’s Robinson says that Celeste can respond to an initial brief on WhatsApp in around 30-45 seconds, and adds that speed and efficiency are exactly what many clients prize.
In principle, there’s nothing stopping a client’s own AI agent from interacting with Celeste, which would take the human element out of both sides of the transaction entirely.
Robinson says a user could prompt their own AI agent to procure a flight by providing the itinerary, aircraft requirements and a budget.
‘That potential may already be out there. We’re not doing that today, but the architecture doesn’t preclude it, and it’s a reasonable place for this to go next,’ he says.
