When Sergey Petrossov looked into booking a private jet for the first time in 2009, he found the only way to do it involved back-and-forth phone calls with brokers, hard copies of invoices, scans and faxes.

“I was wondering, what the heck is going on?’” he said. “It was like a stock market transaction in the ’80s.”

There had to be a better way. So in March 2013, Petrossov, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the US, launched JetSmarter, an app where people can directly book private jet flights around the globe.

The private jet industry has been slow to catch up to a world where almost anything can be done with the tap of an app. But a crop of start-ups like JetSmarter, Victor, PrivateFly and Ubair (a play off of Uber, though it is unaffiliated with the ride sharing service) are changing how it works by creating online marketplaces for private jet travel that enable more choice, transparency and speed for on-demand bookings. As a result, securing a private jet is now more convenient and efficient than ever — and while you can’t call it affordable for most people, it is also cheaper.

Increasing the goods on the market — making smaller, less expensive jets available to fliers — lowers the entry point. On JetSmarter, for example, non-members can book a flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on a three-seat plane starting at $3,800 for the entire plane — that means three colleagues could fly privately for a business meeting for about $1,265 each, avoiding the hassles of some major airports and travelling on their own preferred schedule. Still pricey, compared to a first-class ticket on American Airlines, which costs about $615 one-way, but experts say it’s about a 30% savings over old fashioned charters with brokers as middlemen or prepaid services.

While each company differs slightly in its business model, they all allow customers to instantly price out charters of multiple aircraft options from point A to B and then instantly book the one you choose. It’s a similar concept to that of Uber, an app through which people can seamlessly order a ride and pay for it.

Transparent skies

Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly with headquarters in the UK, was a pilot with the fractional jet ownership company NetJets in the early aughts and noticed how unhappy frequent private jet fliers were with how it all worked — especially because, he said, customers never knew if they were overpaying for a flight.

He launched PrivateFly with his wife in 2008, making the company one of the first to piece together a fragmented marketplace and put charter bookings in the hands of the customer. Today, the company charters flights in 19 countries, including across Europe, China and the US.

When someone searches for a jet for a particular route with PrivateFly it analyses thousands of aircraft and pulls all the options, which can number in the hundreds. This also allows suppliers of all sizes to compete against each other, which Twidell said has made pricing more competitive.

“What we did was nothing that other industries hadn’t done but no one had done it in private jet sector,” he said. “Empowering the customer to see prices direct from suppliers, making the system as efficient as possible for all parties.”

When Twidell was getting the company off the ground five years ago, many industry leaders told him “no one would ever book a private jet online”, he recalled. But PrivateFly has grown by 75% each of the past three years and achieved £10.5m ($16.2m) in revenue for the fiscal year ended May. (PrivateFly charges a minimum 5% fee that varies based on a customer’s use of the concierge service.)

Clive Jackson, the CEO of UK-based Victor, founded in 2011, was convinced transparency would win people’s trust and bookings. When researching flights, customers can see full details about all the aircraft options, including tail numbers, an operator’s safety rating and the crew that will be on board. Victor’s 10% fee is itemised for customers to see.

“The fundamental difference with chartering a flight through Victor is transparency and disclosure,” he said. Victor raised £5.5m ($8m) in equity funding in March to expand into the US.

Geoff Perfect, an executive at a large tech company, had already been flying privately-chartered jets, usually to and from Lake Tahoe on weekends, before he started to use Victor. He said he was “blown away” by the app when he first saw it, in particular for its usability and integration.