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Bizav online; could the tail wag the dog?

Business and Private aviation in Europe is stuck in a 5 year recession. The business part – read light/small jets which operate most of the flights – has slumped most. The impression given by many leading operators is that the market is dire and won’t recover for some time: too much capacity; customers ever more price-sensitive; ‘desperate’ operators are dumping prices and undermining everyone else’s margins. In response there has been a marked tendency for operators to shift towards private aircraft management, with less emphasis on building business models around selling charter flights. After all, the very rich still own aircraft, despite the recession. And management earns steady fees, with less risk. This could be seen as a backwards step, as the industry reverts to its traditional image as a provider a luxury VIP service, as opposed to its aspirational identity as a complementary network to scheduled aviation. If the recession had been short, and we’d bounced back to pre-2008 growth, battening down the hatches and weathering out the storm might have worked. But it’s now clear that the boom was unique, and that to move ahead, operators need new business models. They will need to take a leaf from the airlines, which responded to the fall in demand and rising (fuel) costs by innovating, particularly with low cost models and more sophisticated online sales channels. The obvious equivalent to the low cost model in business aviation is the VLJ-supported air taxi network. This is beginning to work, but not without fits and starts. Its corollary, internet-based ‘ticket’ distribution, has been slower to develop and badly missed. Enhanced by intelligent data consolidation and information sharing, operators and intermediaries could be using the internet as a proactive tool to move business aviation forwards, rather than fall back on private aviation. The sector is not without its pioneers. Ten years on from launch, Avinode virtually monopolises the online B2B market for brokers to liaise with operators. Their latest innovations imply they’re firmly fixed on being the GDS for business aviation. Competition to be the Expedia is led by the likes of PrivatAir and Victor. Rival business models such as Stratajet and FL3XX have a more holistic approach, ambitiously aiming to integrate operators’ front and back office n a single intelligent platform for planning, pricing and marketing capacity. Some may question whether these online solution providers are isolated innovators or signs of an industry step change. Some brokers remain adamant that this industry’s customer relationship will always be led by the human touch rather than the smart phone app. But there are signs operators now see the need to collaborate around their own direct online sales channels – as Air Club has shown. Brokers likewise are initiating alliances which will unify around consolidated B2C online channels. Some of these online business models will compete directly, others may complement each other. None has yet cracked the B2C channel, and the jury is out as to whether the solution will emerge soon, coalescing a single new approach, or whether various options will evolve in parallel. But what is clear is that the online innovators are the epitome of forward-looking change for the industry. It may even be that this is the tail that wags the dog and genuinely transforms the market. To get some insight into the online landscape for business aviation, and the competing business models of its leading innovators, come to Hall 11 at EBACE at 9.30AM on Thursday 23rd May. I will be moderating an EBAA session entitled Shape the Market – Can New IT Tools Apply To Change The Traditional Way Of Doing Business Aviation? It could be an interesting one.

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