A new private jet operator has placed a $1.5 billion order for 110 Lear jets in a bid to penetrate the European market for luxury air travel.

As market turmoil continued and airlines struggle for survival, Jet Republic unveiled, what it claims to be the largest single European order of business aircraft in history. The company said its fleet would link 1000 airports across Europe, starting in October.

It said it was targeting the 3 million ultra-rich people across Europe which it sees as potential customers and that the number was set to grow by 250,000 next year, despite the economic slump.

At a glitzy launch event at Farnborough airport, chief executive Jonathan Breeze, a 36-year-old former RAF pilot, brushed off suggestions that this might not be the best moment to launch a new private jet company.

“This is a sensible, profitable, logical business,” he said. “I think the challenge in the financial markets simply changes the metrics... If anything it probably strengthens the proposition,” he said.

The company is being bankrolled by Euram Bank, a private Austrian bank founded in 1999 which counts a number of wealthy Russians among its clients.

Jet Republic said it was offering fractional ownership of a jet for around €7,500 per flying hour as well as other pre-payment card plans.

Mr Breeze claimed the company would trump rival operators by offering better service and perks such as in-flight service attendants and proper espresso coffee, which he said were often unavailable or of poor quality in the private jet industry.

He said the prices would be the same as rival operators such as Net Jets, where several key staff had previously worked.

Based in Portugal, Jet Republic said it expected customers from the UK and Ireland to be its largest single market although it is also targeting wealthy Russians and Eastern Europeans.

Not everyone was convinced that it is a business model that will fly in the current climate.

“Maybe they are seeing something that the rest of us are not,” said Chris Tarry of Aviation Industry Research and Advisory. “But at a time when corporates are cutting back their travel policies and the European economy is weakening, it is hard to see why they are doing this now.”

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