Imagine spending your days creating private jet experiences to some of the world’s most isolated locales, and then joining guests to experience it – welcome to a day in the life of Abercrombie & Kent director of private jet travel Rami Girgis.
“To make our private jet journeys a reality takes years in the making, and there are always hidden gems.
“My goal is to reveal places that are hard to reach in commercial air,” says Girgis, who has held the role as A&K director of private jet travel for more than a decade.
“We go in advance to destinations like the secret service and we meet key players and airport authorities and privatise airports where we can – that’s a core thing we do wherever we go.
“We’re talking about places that can take four days or five flights to reach, but on the jet it can be just 50 minutes, so we do a lot of research to plan these trips, often three years.”
He says one of the great joys of the job is joining guests. “One of the most enjoyable things is listening to guests and taking on their ideas. They come up with notepads year after year with ideas for private jet journeys, and the biggest compliment is when I can show them their ideas have been incorporated into trips.”
As for new places they are planning to go?
That’s confidential for now due to geopolitical issues and permit discussions, but what he can say is that for their guests it’s about “getting off the beaten track”.
“For example, last year we landed at St. Helena off the west coast of Africa where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled, and it was a region that receives one flight a week from Johannesburg, and it gets food supplies once a month, and we had a private jet land there.
“Finding accommodation alone wasn’t easy, let alone servers and chefs. We had a buy-out of three hotels and set up a kitchen… and the biggest challenge was finding people, and so I’d go out on a Saturday night when everyone in the island comes out and recruit people.
“This is what we’re trying to do; take guests to places money can’t buy, and I’ll never forget that trip. The whole community came out to meet our guests.”
A changing the demographic
Girgis says the demographic has always been those with the luxury of time, but now a younger audience is choosing this style of travel because they can work remotely.
“We’re seeing more people in their 40s and 50s because they can work remotely.
“I had a hedge fund manager who needed good internet to work during the New York Stock Exchange opening hours, and I said, “You’ve got it”, so we set him up an office with dual-screens in a private setting.
“We’ve shifted our product thinking as well to cater for these people because they want an active component, hiking, kayaking, biking and wellness, and always a cultural component.”
That cultural component is met through Abercrombie & Kent’s Philanthropy arm.
“Every trip has at least one AKP experience, so for example, guests arrive in Africa at the Maasai Mari and there’s a classroom being built, and they can experience and be a part of those types of projects.
“We find guests are very generous when they travel, and with AKP, we know where the money is going and how to help people on the ground, so we’re looking for projects that really make an impact. And this is when the beauty of humanity really shines.”
He says more than anything, the luxury travellers choosing jet journeys want authenticity.
“With AI, it’s all going to come back to authenticity, and despite technology and the great things it’s doing, it’ll come back to humanity, and they are all asking us, ‘Where can I see a true remote village that’s not online?’. These are the type of experiences we can give them.”
For more information, visit A&K private jet journeys.
