The weary bands of commercial jet travellers become even wearier at the prospect of even bigger airports, even bigger jets, longer check-in times and longer delays. The joy of turning up at the local airfield with your little band of passengers, your destination another small airfield up to 1,200 miles away, is now spreading. Whether the purpose of the trip is business or pleasure – just popping down to the yacht for a couple of days – or just catching an air taxi, it’s the price of the VLJ which is going to bring the experience to people a little further down the food chain. Currently, the least expensive private jet checks out at around USD4m/GBP2.3m. The VLJ revolution will bring aircraft to market from USD1.3m/GBP750,000 starting in August this year.

The cheapest, the USA manufactured five-seat Eclipse will be the first to roll out with firm orders, together with deposits for 2,400 aircraft on the books. It’s ahead of the competition in terms of timing and price but not in terms of facilities: there’s no loo.

Next to market in December will be the Cessna Citation Mustang. Also a five seater, it’s faster than the Eclipse and also nearly twice the price (USD2.5m/GBP1.4m), but at least there’s a loo on board.

Also due out in December is the Adam A700. With six seats but a lower speed and range than the competition, it may also struggle on price at USD2.1m/GBP1.2m.

Largest of the planned VLJs will be Embraer’s Phenom. Now with considerable experience in the manufacture of short-haul regional jets, the Brazilian manufacturer is designing a wider aircraft with more headroom and elbow room than the competition. Designed to carry seven passengers plus a pilot, the price tag is expected to be around USD2.75m/GBP1.6m when it becomes available in mid-2008.

Honda are also rumoured to have a plan on the drawing board as well as numerous start-up companies around the globe, some of whom will doubtless become casualties along the way. Whilst the US FAA is predicting only 100 of the new breed of VLJs flying by the end of this year, it is suggesting an annual growth of 1,000 a year by the end of the decade. The prospect of thousands of small jets networking the world’s tens of thousands of small airfields will be a dream come true for large numbers of business travellers and HNWIs bent on pleasure. It will, however, present a new challenge to air traffic control centres, which will need to factor a growing number of novel aircraft movements into their calculations.