Private Jet Charter, one of the world's largest independent private jet charter brokers and consultants that recently celebrated the 21st anniversary of its founding in 1991 and opened its initial North American regional headquarters and charter hub in downtown Fort Lauderdale in April 2011 as part of an aggressive expansion plan in North America, held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its newly expanded headquarters at the Sun Sentinel office building at 500 East Broward Boulevard. The expanded Fort Lauderdale office is the company’s fifth in its network complementing locations in London, Nice, Dubai and Moscow.

Private Jet Charter founder and Chief Executive Hugh Courtenay, who has overseen the company’s growth from inception in 1991, said: “After expanding our marketing activities in the US market and establishing an initial office in April 2011, our new North American office led by Managing Director Jeff Garrity and staffed by a team of specialist aviation consultants, speaks to the success we have already achieved and places us in the perfect position to capitalize on the exponential growth of the American Market and the largely untapped opportunities of Central and South America.”

“Our site selection process initially focused on Las Vegas or Chicago, but the presence of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport – one of the nation’s busiest – and the assistance provided by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance CEO Council through Robin Ronne and City of Fort Lauderdale Economic Development officials motivated us that Fort Lauderdale was indeed the right choice to use as a platform for the entire North American market,” Courtenay added. “The continued coordinated assistance of the CEO Council and the City of Fort Lauderdale to provide expedited permitting has allowed us to occupy our new space in less than 60 days, and we are absolutely very grateful for all they have done on our behalf.”

CEO Council Chairman Ray Ferrero, Jr. said, “We are delighted to celebrate Private Jet Charter’s expanded regional headquarters and charter hub in Greater Fort Lauderdale, and congratulate Hugh and Wendy Courtenay and their staff for the substantial progress they have made in just the past 14 months. Their positive experience ratifies the CEO Council’s mission to market Greater Fort Lauderdale as a premier location for corporate and international regional headquarters, and we look forward to celebrating their future successes in the years to come.”

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler added, “We are very happy to assist leading companies in their fields such as Private Jet Charter in expanding their Fort Lauderdale headquarter operations, which speaks to the growing reputation of Fort Lauderdale as a location of choice for international businesses to serve their rapidly expanding North American market. We wish them all continued success.”

Specific benefits that Private Jet Charter offers its customers include 24-hour service around the year, multilingual and expert staff, competitive free quotations and advice, unique CATS aircraft sourcing technology, and flight watch monitoring on all executive air charter flights. This involves keeping the traveller’s personal assistant or travel organizer informed of every stage of the journey, from limousine pick-up to take-off, flight progress and landing.

Other benefits of Private Jet Charter include state-of-the-art new generation private jets, high-calibre pilots and cabin crew, use of private business and VIP terminals, check-in only 15 minutes before departure, rapid but secure immigration procedures, fly from an airport of your choice at your time, ‘meet and greet’ facilities, comprehensive airport information and limousine ground transportation if required.

Commenting on the projected employment headcount and capital investment, Managing Director Jeff Garrity said “Our initial staff of two has increased to five employees within our first year and will be expanded to eight employees over the next 18 months. We projected a $2M turnover in the first year which was achieved and we are on target to make the projected figure for our second year of business of $5.1 million, having made an initial investment reaching $200,000, including
consultancy fees from our management teams in other regions, so we can see our investment has paid off."

“Since Private Jet Charter opened the North American Headquarters here in Fort Lauderdale, we have flown some extremely high net worth business professionals, VIP clients from the music and entertainment industries, high profile sporting personalities and US Government officials to name but a few.”

Garrity concluded: "Our Florida office will guarantee a qualitative service at a closer proximity to our North American customers who represent a big chunk of our clientele. We are committed to servicing them with the highest degree of efficiency and professionalism, which have been the hallmarks of our relationship with our customers in general. We proudly claim that we offer an experience rather than a service."

Headquartered in London, Private Jet Charter is an ISO 9002-certified company with 21 years of leadership in the aviation field. It is a respected provider of VIP aircraft, executive jets, helicopter charter, corporate airliners and dedicated medical evacuation aircraft.

The company accesses its global fleet through a unique and totally bespoke Computerized Aircraft Tracking System which is updated automatically on a daily basis, meaning