On Monday, 21st July, the draw for the third qualifying rounds took place for the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League tournaments, meaning our involvement in the football 2025/2026 season has ramped up with even more bookings being confirmed.
Our charter team has already successfully managed aircraft charters in the first and second qualifying rounds and now they know who their opposition will be in the third rounds, we are looking ahead to another round of charters.
In advance of the draw, the team has been speaking with football teams, pre-empting their commitment in these tournaments and planning ahead for their travel to the fixtures. Matt Feldon, Head of Charter, Tom Pillings, Charter Broker and Clive Head, Senior Sports Charter Broker, have bookings confirmed already for teams who have finalised their travel plans.
With the transfer window due to close in just over a month, we are also handling a number of private jet requests for players taking medicals and meeting with representatives from their potential new clubs. As always, confidentiality is key and we have extensive measures in place to ensure that these players can travel in complete privacy, so as not to jeopardise any of the important discussions they will be having. Our private jet charters during the transfer window tend to be groups of between two and five passengers, so for these, we always recommend light or super-light jets for these flights, such as a Citation CJ2 or a Citation XLS.
The Smart team is also excitedly looking ahead to the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup 26™, which starts on 11th June 2025 in Mexico City and concludes in New Jersey at MetLife Stadium on 19th July 2025. 48 teams will battle it out through 104 fixtures being hosted across 16 cities in three North American countries: the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Matt Feldon, Head of Charter, said: “We always receive several charter requests during the qualifying rounds and although we scour Europe for aircraft availability and offer all of our clients competitive solutions, we respect that quite a few teams prefer utilising scheduled flights instead, based purely on the cost savings they can make. Cost has always been a talking point in the early rounds, as some of the smaller clubs just don’t have the budget to charter aircraft until they progress further into the competitions. We are off to a great start and are looking forward to all the excitement this season has in store, and of course, the return of the world’s greatest football tournament next year, FIFA World Cup 26™”.
For all aircraft charter enquiries, contact us via sales@smart-aviation.co.uk or call +441293 551244
