The team behind the journey
A journey can look effortless on paper. A departure time, a flight, a car waiting on arrival. Between those lines sit aircraft contracts, airport arrangements, luggage movements and the coordination of people who may never meet the guest. Each decision affects the day that follows: when lunch happens, how much time remains before dinner, whether an arrival leaves room for rest.
For Arc Vitae, these intervals matter. The faculty’s work continues across countries, and the travel arrangements need to support its pace. Our private aviation partner, Bartelings, brings together the planning and operational work that allows the programme to move from one setting to another.
Planning beyond the flight
Founded in 2015, Bartelings develops journeys by privately chartered aircraft in collaboration with travel, tourism and lifestyle partners. Its work extends beyond securing an aircraft. Routes, charter terms, airport assistance and ground arrangements must fit together, with responsibilities understood before departure.
These tasks involve different perspectives on the same journey. An aviation partner considers aircraft availability and operational requirements. A local partner assesses the arrival arrangements. The accompanying tour team sees what those decisions mean for the people travelling.
The work lies in bringing these perspectives together. A change to one flight can alter the ground programme. An ambitious arrival schedule can consume the afternoon it was intended to preserve. An itinerary becomes workable when those dependencies have been examined.
A coordinated operation
Bartelings’ account of its first decade describes teams securing experiences, testing routes and managing logistics, working with airline and local partners through changing travel regulations and wider disruption. Its programmes have also included Pan Am private air journeys, drawing on the history of transatlantic travel.
The aircraft is one part of this operation. Airport assistance, luggage handling and continuity of the accompanying tour team and airline crew also shape the experience of moving between destinations.
For guests, the coordination becomes apparent in ordinary moments. Someone knows where the luggage is going. The next transfer has been arranged. The people accompanying the group understand the programme and what comes next.
For the teams delivering the journey, those moments depend on preparation: clear briefings, agreed responsibilities and communication across locations.
The partnership with Arc Vitae
Arc Vitae moves through Madrid, Morocco, Egypt and India. The settings change while the faculty and the enquiry remain connected. Travel therefore has consequences for the programme. A conversation needs space, an arrival needs breathing room, and a day of concentrated work depends partly on what preceded it.
Our partnership with Bartelings brings the aviation and travel arrangements into that wider planning process. Aircraft selection, routing and transfers are considered alongside the time guests will spend with the faculty, at each destination and at rest.
This requires coordination between the Bartelings team, the Arc Vitae faculty and the partners receiving us in each location. Each holds a different part of the programme; the journey depends on how those parts meet.
Much of this work takes place before guests arrive. Routes are examined, responsibilities agreed and transitions planned. The resulting itinerary may occupy only a few pages. Behind it are the teams whose work makes those pages possible.
