If you want to get ahead, get a jet’ might be the unofficial motto of today’s global business operators, with increasing numbers of corporations operating across three, four or five continents, and executives having to travel thousands of miles a year keeping on top of what is going on, and knitting everything together.
Different companies need different answers to their travel problems, which is where ExecuJet Aviation Group believes it has the edge.
The company was founded in 1991 by a group of private investors with a background in technology solutions selling and a passion for business aviation, who “firmly believed that business aviation would be better served and business aircraft markets expanded by providing a solutions-based approach to selling product and services,” according to Peter Smales, Group Executive Director – Marketing responsible globally and regionally for ExecuJet’s marketing and aircraft sales business.
A private Swiss enterprise from inception, ExecuJet in fact first tested it’s ‘aviations transportations solutions’ business model in southern Africa, where it operated on the back of a regional Bombardier Business Aircraft sales franchise from office and maintenance facilities headquartered at Johannesburg’s Lanseria Airport. Headquartered today in Zurich, Switzerland, ExecuJet Aviation Group provides the strategic umbrella under which the company’s four geographic business units; ExecuJet South Africa, ExecuJet Middle East, ExecuJet Australia and ExecuJet Europe, manage and grow their own regional aviation sales and services business activity.
Each division is headed by a regional Managing Director supported by a regional Management Committee, the four business units responsible for ExecuJet’s aircraft sales, aircraft operations and aircraft maintenance businesses in a specific geographical territory, spreading across the Pacific into New Zealand and Australia and up into south-east Asia, the Asian sub-continent (including India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan), the Middle East and Africa and across the length and breadth of Europe.
The company employs around 450 staff globally, 90 percent of whom are employed in its services businesses, that is operations and maintenance, the rest in aircraft sales. “These statistics”, Mr Smales says, “show that ExecuJet has grown significantly from the handful of people who were involved in the business when it was established in 1991”, adding that staff numbers today are actually double the number employed in the company little more than five years ago.
ExecuJet’s customer numbers “are too numerous to provide an accurate tally,” Mr Smales says: they include aircraft sales, completions and operations management and maintenance clients, regular and ad hoc charter users, “and the thousands of visitors annually who pass through our various regional fixed-base operations (FBO’s) globally.” Across all our business units the company boasts a very diverse clientele, a mixture of private individuals, private businesses, multi-national and listed corporations, heads of state, governments and private and commercial charter and special missions operators.
“So far as our charter business is concerned, we do work closely with key charter brokers, but at the same time attend to a growing number of regular direct clients. With nearly 100 aircraft now managed globally, a third of which are available for charter, ExecuJet’s reputation as a world leader in the provision of business aircraft transportation solutions continues to attract more direct and long term loyal clients, but without impacting the services provided to our broker-sourced customer base.”
ExecuJet believes what principally differentiates it from its competitors in the business aviation markets is its ‘total solutions philosophy’, and its tight involvement with two of the big business jet manufacturers, Bombardier of Canada (manufacturer in the US of Learjet aircraft) and Grob of Germany. “As an exclusive new aircraft sales agent and dealer in 33 countries for Bombardier Business Aircraft’s Learjet, Challenger and Global business aircraft products, and a distributor for the Grob Aerospace spⁿ light business jet in every country globally except the US and Canada, ExecuJet not only sells new OEM [original equipment manufacturer] product into the market, but also provides our customers with a complete package of in-house aircraft completions, acceptance, delivery and full operations management, flight dispatch and control, maintenance and ancillary FBO and ground handling aviation services,” Mr Smales says.
The relationship with Bombardier, the fourth largest aircraft manufacturer in the world behind Boeing, Airbus and Brazil’s Embraer, is vital to ExecuJet, Mr Smales says: “ExecuJet represents Bombardier Business Aircraft in 33 countries and is involved in a couple of joint venture activities, most recently in Berlin, where ExecuJet last year acquired a stake in Berlin’s Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services (LBAS) in joint venture with Lufthansa Technik and Bombardier.”
“Although Bombardier and ExecuJet are independent organisations, the two enjoy a close strategic partnership; ExecuJet benefiting from a near-global Bombardier franchise, approved to sell Bombardier’s superior product range of Learjet, Challenger and Global business aircraft brands across four Continents; Bombardier benefiting from the increased product market share ExecuJet provides through the application of our very successful business aviation total transportations solutions model.”
As a private company, ExecuJet does not publish financial data, “Suffice to say,” says Mr. Smales, when asked about how well the company is doing financially, “the company’s investments over the past six years in Australia, the Middle East, Switzerland and Germany on the eve and during one of business aviation’s most economically depressed business periods on record, are today reaping ExecuJet substantial reward in this exciting period today of business aviation renaissance.”
As far as current business is concerned, he says, “all of ExecuJet’s markets are performing equally well, across all regions and across all elements of our business. Yes, we have strong competition in our businesses, but its confined to a handful of players, none of which compete in all markets and across all elements of our business model. Actually, some of our competitors are, where certain aspects of our services business are concerned, in fact close strategic partners.”
The type and nature of the competition the company faces “depends upon the business and the region, but of one thing ExecuJet can always be certain; with such a broad business aviation portfolio upon which to rely there are always fresh business opportunities to be found.” Having a foot in a new aircraft sales camp of course creates aftermarket services opportunities, but, Mr. Smales explains, “our services business units contribute just as much to leveraging opportunity for aircraft sales as do aircraft sales for those services business units.”
For the future, Mr Smales says, “ExecuJet is committed to strengthening its existing core business hubs across Australia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe through organic investment, with a particular focus on building our in-country services infrastructure around our Germany Bombardier aircraft sales franchises and growing our presence in eastern Europe and Russia.” He added that, “fast-emerging business aviation sales and services opportunities in the Asian sub-Continent and China were obvious drivers for further ExecuJet investment, particularly on the back of a very rapidly growing demand in both regions for the Grob spⁿ”
There are no specific threats to the company’s sales and services business on the immediate horizon, Mr. Smales believing that, “Any immediate threats are more industry broad, such as the business impact of investing in externally mandated even greater still and more stringent security equipment and services at already controlled and marginally profitable FBO’s.” He contends that, “On the contrary, opportunities abound across all elements of our business.” Expanding on the debate about threats, Mr. Smales added,” It’s uncertain how regulatory and industry responses to public concerns about the environment and the debate surrounding business aviation’s contribution to global warming might impact business air travel”, adding, when questioned, that, “ExecuJet is of course keen to better understand the impacts and to monitor opportunities to reduce, where possible, CO² emissions.” He explained that, “ExecuJet has already tasked our professional operations staff and key flight crew to make suggestions as how we might be able to contribute to what, on current evidence, is a very worthy cause, although, from a controlled flight operations standpoint, its been challenging.”
“Advances in OEM technology related to reducing aerodynamic drag and/or fuel consumption are going to be key, and in particular improvements in air traffic technologies. However, given that it is estimated that only 2 percent of global CO² emissions are attributed to aviation as a whole, and that business aviation probably contributes to less than 7 percent of that figure, it is probably going to be difficult to build a strong emissions reductions lobby fearful of yet another potential business cost imposition.”