FARNBOROUGH, England, September 13 /PRNewswire/ --     Madonna and the Prince of Wales are two of an estimated 3000 select
people who are being invited to join the world's first private flight sharing
club in an effort to reduce the environmental impact and cost of private jets
that are currently flying empty 40% of the time.

The Flightshare Private Members Guild is the brainchild of Farnborough UK
based David Lacy, an aviation veteran of 26 years who was the first to
introduce carbon offsets to the European private jet industry last year.

Membership uniquely enables the sharing of private jet flights through
access to the Guilds secure portal and private coordination service. The
Guild is expected to support around 1500 members who, according to their
invitation letter, will be "encouraged to cooperate in a spirit of collective
endeavour and demonstrate a real commitment to meeting their travel needs in
a sustainable manner". Most of the fractional ownership and jet card schemes
have contracts that would allow flight sharing and their members are
encouraged to participate in the Guilds objectives.

Lacy stresses that this is a significant step forward from the recently
maligned carbon offsetting schemes. Flightshare aims instead, to cut
emissions at source.

David Lacy says: "Sharing trips in this way will reduce much of the waste
in the private jet industry by utilising empty seats and empty legs. It's a
known fact that the world's private jets currently fly empty for 40% of the
time, often with several aircraft flying to and from the same airports, on
the same day and at very similar times; creating their own congestion and
using up precious air traffic slots"

"Major events in the entertainment, social, sporting and business
calendar are frequent examples which create a 'honeypot' effect of private
aircraft around airports. Additionally, we often find that people are simply
travelling to the same area at the same time for general business or leisure
purposes. We want to bring these people together where possible and save them
time and money, but more importantly, to help create sustainability for the
industry and the environment"

Last year, in Europe alone, there were 710,000 private flights. An
estimated 250,000 of these were empty positioning flights with none of the
seats occupied and of the remainder, most of these flew with a number of
seats empty.

Flightshare worked closely with TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) and
logistical software experts Carshare Online after consulting widely with
private jet owners and operators, passengers, fractional owners and jet card
holders in establishing a common sense solution to the high demand, low
supply and increasing cost of private jets. "The Flightshare solution
uniquely benefits all stakeholders and the environment: a true win win
situation" enthused Lacy.

The Guilds main ethos is one of decorum and will draw its membership
exclusively from a select group of high profile individuals: Royalty and
senior diplomats; carefully selected celebrities, sports personalities and
high net worth individuals; directors of FTSE 100 and 250 companies and
directors of other large multinationals.

If you qualify for membership, be sure to expect an invitation from
Flightshare through your letterbox soon.

Notes for Editors

Flightshare is the worlds first private jet flight sharing organisation.
Based at Farnborough Airport in England the Guild is administered by
Flightplan Ltd an established private air travel consultancy with over 25
years experience. Flightshare have worked with the TRL and Carshare UK in the
design of software used to commission the on line portal.

TRL (the UK's Transport Research Laboratory) is a world leading provider
of research, consultancy and testing covering all aspects of transport. Based
in Crowthorne, Berkshire key areas of work include road, network and vehicle
safety, traffic management, planning and control, investigations and risk
management, infrastructure capabilities in pavements, structures and
geotechnics and environmental issues such as climate change, air, noise and
soil pollution.

Carshare Online is one of the UK's leading providers of travel sharing
solutions. Carshare Online software was originally developed in 1997 and was
the first browser based car sharing software to be developed exclusively for
both the internet and company intranets. The company is committed to the
challenge of finding solutions to road congestion and parking problems, by
providing systems that encourage efficient use of car and alternative forms
of transport, but also backed up with the tools and support for organisations
to meet their goals.