Page 66 - World Airnews Magazine February Edition 2021

NEWS DIGITAL

parts of the engine that have previously been not possible to repair and MROs need to adapt to the new market environment and pivot
due to their location in the engine. to the lucrative areas of business.
Research into electric aircraft, as well as the development of the This means focusing on future proofing and streamlining their
Aviation Carbon Offsets trading platform, also demonstrate the business processes. As the industry moves to recovery in 2021,
industry’s commitment to becoming more sustainable. investing in technology to streamline processes and improve
I predict this will gain pace as the industry recovers and being production - as well as embracing sustainable developments and
able to extract the data which shows the environmental footprint initiatives in the industry - will put airlines in a good position to hit
of operations on a fleet-wide basis will be a necessity. the recovery trail in 2021 and set themselves up for success in the
Future proofing commercial aviation going forward – adaptability years to come.
and flexibility is required This is not the end for air travel - but the future will strike a
In summary, although the development areas for the coming different normal. Airlines and their supporting software need to be
year in the sector appear to be very different, adaptability and up to it. Q
flexibility remain at the heart of all of them. Commercial carriers
NEWS DIGITAL

PRIVATE AVIATION IS BOOMING

for under (US) $10,000.”
Magellan Jets’ new membership programme enticed many
For industries that streamlined pandemic life, made it safer, or airline expats with a combination of guaranteed access and small
both, 2020 did have its upsides. membership fees (relative to jet cards, at least, which require large
First-time customers to private aviation, for example, swelled sums), with each programme offering its own app. A similar idea is
by 300 percent year over year, with thousands of people flying XO’s RISE, for clients who typically fly less than 15 hours per year,
privately for personal travel for the first time - a silver lining priced at (US) $595.
considering corporate travel by private jet declined by 80 percent And while Jet Linx’s Affiliate Jet Card Membership, a three-month
during the same period. programme with a small financial commitment, was designed
“From April onwards, two-thirds of our card clients were new,” to be offered for just 30 days during the first Covid-19 wave, it
said Andrew Collins, CEO of Sentient Jet, the industry’s leading became so popular that it made up 22 percent of the company’s
jet-card provider. memberships by the end of 2020.
“Thanks to the uptick in new entrants, we saw sales we never Other programmes blur the lines between memberships and
would have thought possible during a pandemic.” cards. Jet Aviation’s hybrid programmes didn’t even have a
The influx of novices was spurred in part by the Coronavirus Aid, name during its trial period, though, according to Elouisa Dalli,
Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which removed the 7.5 the company’s senior VP of marketing and communications, the
percent federal excise tax for all private air travel booked in 2020, concept is self-explanatory: “The client chooses the plane, receives
including flights scheduled for 2021 and 2022. guaranteed availability and gets the best transparent pricing.”
Quick to promote the tax holiday, many aviation firms fashioned Jet Edge’s new reserve programme, meanwhile, is aimed at
membership programmes specifically aimed at first-timers. first-timers who want large-cabin or super-midsize jets, but its
“A number [of companies] lowered the entry points for their multi tiered, refundable deposits are similar to those of card
programmes,” said Doug Gollan, founder of Private Jet Card programmes.
Comparisons, which tracks more than 60 card and membership Whether or not these newcomer-friendly offers continue to
programmes. proliferate, most expect private aviation to keep growing.
“Some cut the number of hours required for purchase from 25 to “The most common refrain I’m hearing from subscribers,” Gollan
10, and others launched pay-as-you-go programmes you can join said, “is that they’re never going back to the airlines”. Q

World Airnews | February Extra 2021
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