ABS Jets CEO Jan Králík on running private jets in unstable skies

Jan Králík heads the Czech company ABS Jets, which operates private aircraft for wealthy clients and charters out others; by his account, the firm’s revenue exceeds four billion crowns. In a podcast from the Forbes Top CEO series, he explained why this glossy business is never dull: the situation in the world keeps changing.

Králík himself travels around Europe roughly once a week, and he speaks quietly and carefully about the world of luxury and big money. He joined ABS Jets as a dispatcher, already holding an aviation education: he planned flights, arranged overflight and landing permits, and organised services at the destination. That work, he says, showed him that an airline is not just a plane and a pilot but a huge team behind the scenes. A pilot flying through thunderstorms and crowded skies is “the cherry on the cake.”

Clients find the company themselves if the work is done well: the circle of potential passengers is small, and they pass recommendations to one another. At the same time, private jets turn out not to be only for billionaires. According to Králík, the client base is widening, and an entrepreneur with a small firm can charter a plane once a year to fly to Croatia with family, children, grandmother and dog. Divide the cost among the passengers, he argues, and the sum no longer looks dizzying — and you fly whenever you want.

A phone call in this business usually means a problem: bad weather, a technical fault, a military conflict, a shortage of staff or spare parts. The Middle East is especially difficult. “Today we make not only a plan B but a plan C, a plan D and so on. You never know whether there will be shooting in Riyadh,” says Králík. If a plane can be routed through the north of Saudi airspace, that does not mean it will work the day after tomorrow, and the company has to deal with such situations every day.

By the Around Prague newsroom