Airline flies in the face of jet-set image

* username: rupertbu

When the leaders of the US automobile industry were summoned to Washington following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 to discuss their companies’ travails, they were castigated for flying to the US capital in private jets.

In a period of some austerity, private jets are the symbol of corporate – and individual – excess. Except perhaps in the Middle East.

According to Mark Pierotti, chief operating officer of AJA, a start-up executive airline, there are about 380 private jets operating in the Middle East and north Africa.