• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, July 19, 2013

Some apps seem to be well suited to high flyers.

Earlier this year I wrote about how Magellan Jets, a Boston-based private aviation company, partnered with an app provider so that the app users could input their itinerary, see prices and book a jet.

The charge for the high-end app is $1,000 and had more than 150,000 members, those with a net worth of more than $1 million.

It becoming clear that some big ticket purchases can and will be made from mobile devices.

Online booking network PrivateFly just reported its biggest sale ever through a mobile app.

For $500,000, a client in Saudi Arabia booked a Boeing Business Jet, a converted 737, for a multi-leg business trip to Europe, all through the iPhone app.

And this app delivers. The plane includes an office, board room, lounge, VIP bedroom and two bathrooms.

I used the app to request a quote for a New York-London non-stop flight later this month. Within a few minutes, I got an email asking for some minor additional details, like number of passengers and type of plane I would prefer.

I provided that and got a quick quote. The entire process took fewer than five minutes.

So who would use apps for private jet bookings? An executive at PrivteFly in London told me that 6% of their business now comes through the mobile app. The company has reported more than 100,000 downloads of the app globally.  

Oh, the quote for the non-stop New-York-London on a quite awesome G4? $100K. But it would be round trip.