December 17, 2025
2021 UK-broker start-up Atlas Jet Charter is expanding to the U.S. and Asia thanks to its strategy of focusing on the premium market.
UK-based Atlas Jet Charter is planning to open offices in the U.S. and Southeast Asia.
For the 2021 start-up, which pairs two college friends, opening up so far afield is not about grandiose plans.
The boutique broker expects to double its team in the coming year, say Connor Millar and Toby Hayton.
That would bring the head count to double digits.
The partners say that opening the new international offices reflects how they built the business.
After starting with traditional marketing, including pay-per-click campaigns, they found a niche by serving lifestyle concierges and security firms working with UHNWs.
While typical charter brokers may convert low single-digit leads, Atlas Jet Charter sells over 60% of the quote requests from concierges and security firms.
Best of all, the clients of these firms are often seeking premium solutions.
The concierges and security firms are less interested in price than in having a competent advocate with knowledge of the operators and their fleets.
The pair bonded in college when they collaborated on a business idea contest.
Back in 2012, they proposed drone delivery of packages.
While they didn’t win, the duo figured that besides friends, they would be good business partners.
Millar built experience in private aviation with PrivateFly (now FXAir Europe) and then Flightserve, which had an NHS contract for medical and organ donor flights.
After it lost the contract, one of Millar’s clients said he would back him in a new company if Millar were interested.
Hayton was working at an engineering firm.
When he got the call from Millar, the pair started Atlas Jet Charter.
Its jet card was launched at the end of 2023 as a response to concierges and security firms.
The duo says many of the requests were for supplemental flights that didn’t fit into the existing fractional or jet card programs of those firms’ clients.
Still, they found that, even though clients were happy with their service, they wanted something with guaranteed availability and rates.
The response was three options, all of which have capped hourly rates for both Europe and North America.
There’s an Everything Jet Card that offers capped rates from turboprops to ultra-long-haul jets.
A light jet card covers super light jets, light jets, very light jets, and turboprops.
Finally, there is a card just for turboprop access.
The program has no peak days, and the rate lock duration is negotiated individually.
The capped rates enable them to source preferred aircraft types, so clients who are flexible on dates, aircraft vintage, or type can save money below the caps.
For example, they recently saved a client 2,380 euros on a PC-12 from Gstaad to Olbia.
From Bodrum to London, they beat their capped rates by over 20,000 euros on a Challenger 350.
Currently, there are 24 jet card customers.
The expansion into the U.S. and Asia reflects that, as they already have clients in those regions through their concierge and security firm partners.
They say the concierges and security firms like the relationship.
They get a cut of deposits and flight revenue, and despite Atlas’s relatively small size, it offers a guaranteed product for clients who want a programmatic offering.
Millar and Hayton say they often work on a white label basis with their partners.
Brokers at Atlas Jet Charter work directly with operators rather than through a central sourcing department, which they say ensures clients receive the aircraft that best suits their mission.
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