In the two years preceding the launch of JetSetGo, in March 2014, she had done her own consultancy work.Ī year on, JetSetGo gives individuals access to 75 private jets and helicopters in India with the ease of booking the flight online.
“The day I recovered, I packed my bags and moved to Delhi because I knew that sitting in Bhopal, I was not going to be able to do anything.” By then, the idea for JetSetGo was already brewing in her head.
She underwent treatment for about nine months. On completing her MBA, she headed back to India in early 2011.ĭays after returning, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer that affects the lymphatic system. Her assignments with the firm brought her in close association with air charter companies in India. “My biggest learning then was that India was a football field of opportunities and no one was capitalising on it,” she says. She also bagged a job at Aerospace Resources, a UK-based aviation consultancy firm. In December 2009, she packed her bags and went to pursue an MBA at Coventry University in England. And Tekriwal, who had dreamt of being a pilot as a child, got an opportunity to work in that department. While in college, she found herself a part-time creative job at the diversified conglomerate Indiabulls, which was at that time setting up an aviation division. After her schooling in The Lawrence School, Lovedale in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, Tekriwal enrolled for a course in visual communication and design at the BD Somani Institute of Art & Fashion Technology in Mumbai in 2006. Life, however, would take a different turn. Brought up in a Marwari family in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Tekriwal says she was told by her parents that they would find a groom for her once she graduated. Tekriwal found her way into this business by chance and somewhat by design. Her idea of aggregating private jet operators onto an online platform and then creating luxury experiences was aimed at resolving these issues. “If you didn’t own a private jet, you ended up calling 10 operators, 30 brokers and everyone was misleading you,” says Tekriwal. The culinary air experience cost around Rs 5.5 lakh, which is roughly the cost of a mid-sized sedan.įor India’s moneyed, chartering a private jet is now a breeze compared to a few years ago when the market was fragmented, opaque in its dealings and dominated by brokers and middlemen. The menu included ostrich eggs, crabmeat risotto, parma ham and pâté among other delicacies. “We have also organised bachelor parties and pre-wedding photo shoots among other experiences on a private jet,” adds Tekriwal, whose company received funding (amount undisclosed) from cricketer Yuvraj Singh earlier this year.Īnother notable experience that Tekriwal’s JetSetGo organised recently was a tailor-made, seven-course meal for a couple who wanted to go on a date in a private jet. The cost of chartering a private jet for a birthday party starts at around Rs 60,000 an hour and can even touch Rs 2.5 lakh per hour, depending on the aircraft.
“We have organised around four to five birthday parties, for eight- to 16-year-olds, on a private jet in the last seven months,” says Kanika Tekriwal, 27, CEO and co-founder of JetSetGo. Eventually, a US-based industrialist chartered the jet for 95,000 euros (approximately Rs 70 lakh).įor the affluent, there is nothing that money can’t buy. Likewise, around the same time, JetSetGo got 19 inquiries for an Airbus Corporate Jet that was to return to Europe without passengers after being booked for a one-way trip to New Delhi. Soon enough, a member of one of India’s top business families chartered the aircraft to Nice, in France, for about £58,000 (around Rs 58 lakh). Many high net worth individuals in the country were notified of the empty leg charter space in the aircraft thanks to JetSetGo, a New-Delhi based startup that aggregates private jets, much like Uber does with cabs. The aircraft, which was chartered for a one-way trip, would have normally returned empty legged to its home airport. Kanika Tekriwal, CEO and co-founder of JetSetGo, a Delhi-based startup that aggregates private jetsĪbout three months ago, a Gulfstream G650, a leading luxury business jet, flew into New Delhi from the US.
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