The event attracted a mix of senior management from most of the major OEMs, global financiers, lawyers, Operators, Export Credit Agencies and of course, Avinode all of whom seemed eager to discuss and network.

Having all of these people gathered in the same place to discuss business is in itself an intriguing sign of how industry is improving, across the board, but if I were to summarize the event with one sentence it would be “not much has changed since 2011”.

The key take outs were:

• Most financiers are only interested in deals worth $10M + and in new or “semi new aircraft” in the Midsize and Larger segments
• Led by the OEMs, the BRIC countries, in general, and China, in particular, will be this industry’s savior
• Credit and financing for fractional and charter remains unimproved and very few apart from the Export Credit Agencies seem willing to enter into this sector.
• There seems to be a general feeling of cautious optimism in the industry where everyone agrees that the worst days are over. I remember coming back with the same feeling last year.

The main highlights from the event:

• Netjets Europe reported that their major growth markets were Russia and the Middle East.
• The charismatic founder and chairman of Vista Jet, Thomas Flohr, reported that Vista Jet is profitable, that 75% of all their flights are conducted outside of the European Union, during 2011 they travelled to over 857 destinations outside North America, and finally he would like to see Vista Jet double as a company by 2015, both in terms of turnover and fleet size.
• On the Chinese side, Minsheng Financial Leasing put forth a bold ambition, to own 40% of all aircraft in China by 2015.
• The Export Credit Agencies were represented by EX-IM and BNDES. Both following strategies that in contrast to the rest of the financing community allows them to work with fractional and charter operators. BNDES said that they will basically go wherever EMBRAER wants them to go, and EX-IM has the ambition of getting their nickname changed to “the Bank of Wichita” rather than the “Bank of Boeing”. EX-IM, however, has a long way to travel before it earns that name change. In 2011, they were involved in commercial Aviation deals worth around $11Billion but only about 2.5% were related to business aviation.
• Finally, I presented the 2012 Avinode BI Charter Forecast, which will be presented as a stand-alone article here on the Node.

We would like to thank Alasdair and his team, once again, for a productive event. These were two very knowledge intense days, and we had the chance to take part in many very interesting discussions and presentations.

I begin my trip, by making some silly, new territory mistakes. Living in Sweden I am used to the cold winter months, so I assumed Istanbul in February would be relatively warm in comparison. How wrong could I have been: it rained for the first two days and snowed the next two. My traveling wardrobe did not really suit this weather.

Then when I tried to pay the taxi driver who drove me from the airport to my hotel he pointed at the meter, it read 45. I thought €45 euro for this journey seemed rather expensive, and it took several minutes of two people talking to each other with neither one understanding a single word the other was saying to realize he didn’t accept Euros. He wanted 45 Turkish Lira (less than €20).

Another new experience was Raki, but perhaps I should not go into detail about how it makes you dance.

As for the market, my impression is that the Turkish charter business in January and February has been a little slow but it is expected to pick up considerably towards the summer months.

The Istanbul area is currently dominated by midsize and heavy jet aircraft, and several operators mentioned that additional mids and heavies were coming into the region.

Most of the operators in the area are operating the aircraft on behalf of the owners, with the main objective of flying for them and their companies, and if there is any availability left over then the aircraft can be chartered out. This is the hallmark of a younger market, and is something we have seen in many markets before. If Turkey follows the path set in other markets than the previously mentioned increase of aircraft should make charter easier by expanding the available charter fleet.

I look forward to my next visit to Turkey.

On my first day, I was lucky to discover that I would be surrounded by remarkable colleagues who comprise an amazing team. I spent my first week getting an intense crash course for my upcoming tradeshow with Avinode, NBAA’s Schedulers and Dispatchers, which was scheduled to take place in San Diego during my second work week. On Saturday Per, Niklas, David, and I flew across the country to set up the Avinode booth. The rest of the team joined us the next day.

By 6.00pm, Sunday evening, the “Noders”, and our sister teams from SchedAero and Wyvern, were already “rocking and rolling” at the S&D 2012 Welcome Reception. It was a great opening to a fantastic show. Clients from near and far stopped by the booth to have a look at the New Marketplace or take a the new Trip Board for a test drive.
It was interesting to hear the perspectives’ of the clients and hear their opinions were about continuous improvements we’re rolling out for the Marketplace. I also made sure to take the opportunity to walk the floor and get to know the exhibitors, many of whom we appreciatively call clients. Seemingly every person I have encountered, in this industry, is highly passionate about their career path.

Now, I would have ended my blog by giving you some impressions from my return flight with a commercial airline, but thankfully things don’t always go as planned…. I received an email from Windsor Jet Management asking if I was interested in flying home with them on their Gulfstream IV. Without hesitation, I accepted.

After a week of eating, drinking and sleeping aviation this was the ultimate culmination to an amazing trade show. Aside from obvious convenience of the “boarding process,” it was marvelous to see the passion of the pilots, the new technology they work with, and to hear their expectations of 2012.

It was an amazing experience that I will never forget, and, of course, compared to this wonderful experience my typical “coach flying” experiences will never be the same.
Thank you Windsor Jet Management for making this experience possible. I have told my friends and family that this is not my every day job, but they all now seem to want to work for Avinode…

I feel like Avinode and the business aviation industry has welcomed me with a warm heart and I am looking forward to the “ride.”

Back when the Marketplace was first launched in November 2002, Avinode was in virgin territory paving the way for web technology to enter the air charter industry. At that time there was a risk that no requests would be sent through the system and that Brokers would simply continue to pick up the phone to contact customers for business.

When the very first requests came into Avinode an SMS was sent to the entire organization to say that a request had been received. In the first weeks, days would pass between requests, but then the trickle became a steady stream and a new business model was born.

The days of the company-wide SMS are long behind us now, as Avinode has grown to process around 5 requests per minute, 24/7 365 days a year. At any given moment in the system there is some 20 million USD of business being quoted. This process goes around the clock from the moment our first customers in New Zealand get to work until our members in Hawaii shut down for the day.

With the global nature of the business aviation market now truly reflected in the system, it is not surprising that the 4 millionth request to pass through the system would be from a US member looking for lift in Europe. The request was a good demonstration of just how far Avinode has come since those first requests back in 2002.

The team at Avinode didn’t pause long over this milestone however. That did not mean their curiosity was slaked. Even as the team dug back into the work of maintaining and developing the Avinode system, questions began to emerge about when we will hit the bigger milestone of 10 million.

We reached 4 million only a year after hitting 3, and with the exponential growth that Avinode has experienced we may well hit 10 million in less than 3 years. And growth will continue.

In 2010 Avinode merged with CharterX to form the largest marketplace network in the world. At the end of February we will take the next step in this journey by bringing our members from CharterX and Avinode together inside the New Marketplace at Avinode.com. While almost all of our customers have already begun using the new system we expect to see a burst in activity after we transition to a single marketplace at the beginning of March.

From that day forward our members will only have to log in once to gain access to the world’s largest online marketplace for air charter. This will not only make life simpler for our members, but also allow Avinode to focus on future product developments as we continue to push the technological boundaries to meet our members growing needs.

Taking a quick look at the numbers, the start of the year has been somewhat slower than 2011, it’s basically on track in comparison to 2010 and high above 2009. During the first 22 days of 2012, 99,981 business jet departures were recorded. This is 6.2% below the figures recorded during the same period last year, 0.9% above 2010 figures and 15.5% above 2009 figures.

Breaking it down by aircraft category, the general trend is consistent across the board apart for the Entry Level Jet (ELJ) Category, which has seen a stable increase in number of flights over the past 3 years. The number of ELJ departures in 2009 was 5532 compared to 8688 in 2012.

The increase in the number of ELJ flights may partially be explained by the fact that this is a relatively new aircraft category, which continues to grow with each new aircraft delivery, but it could also be a sign of a market driven by more price conscious consumers, who would still like to utilize business jets but are now opting for a more economical solution.

Ultra Long Range Aircraft have taken the biggest hit in the early January numbers, with departures decreasing 18.5% compared to the first 22 days in 2011.

Even though the numbers show a decrease in total number of US business jet departures it is still way too early to tell which direction the industry is going to head in 2012. Remember that we are still above 2010 figures and far above the 2009 crisis numbers so no need to worry yet.

While you’re there, we invite you to take part in our booth competition for a chance to win an all expenses paid trip to Avinode Academy in Miami, Florida. We’ll put you up at the luxurious W hotel so you can enjoy the sun and sand of Miami’s famous South Beach, and we’ll give you a full access pass to our popular Avinode Academy where you can learn more about the Marketplace, contribute your ideas for the future of Avinode, and mingle with industry peers from around the world.

This year’s Avinode Academy will be held at the W hotel South Beach on June 21, 2012 so make sure to save the date!

Watch the video below (or check it out on YouTube) to get a little taste of what we have in store for you in 2012.

As our gift to you we invite you to join us for a look at the most popular destination airports this holiday season and then watch Magnus Henriksson’s review of the year in charter aviation. 

As the soaring demand of the holidays stretches into its final days let’s take a moment to look at the influences on demand that are causing this rapid increase. Long distance flights are the holiday norm with most travelers booking holiday trips to sunnier latitudes. According to Avinode the majority of travelers departing from European airports are headed to destinations in the Indian Ocean, the United States, or the Caribbean for the holidays while travelers departing from airports in the United States are mostly bound for the Caribbean or the South Pacific. 



This has been an interesting year for charter demand. From the Arabian Spring to the Autumn Drop there have been a large humber of unprecedented events this year that have shaped the state of charter industry.  We invite you to join Magnus Henriksson for a review of the events that have affected the market this year, along with a look at which aircraft models have dominated the skies of Europe during the last 12 months.

Watch the video review below.

Top 10 Destinations (for flights departing from ICAO codes E, L, U & O) 
   

1. Ibrahim Nasir Int’l Airport – Malé, Maldives – VRMM
2. Princess Juliana Int’l Airport – St. Maarten Island, Netherlands Antilles – TNCM
3. SSR Int’l Airport – Plaine Magnien, Mauritius – FIMP  
  
4. McCarren Int’l Airport – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA – KLAS
5. Miami Int’l Airport – Miami, Florida, USA – KMIA
6. Phuket Int’l Airport – Phuket, Thailand – VTSP 

7. Menara Int’l Airport – Marrakech, Morocco – GMMX
8. Seychelles Int’l Airport – Seychelles – FSIA
9. Bali Int’l Airport – Denpasar, Bali – WADD
10. Grantley Adams Int’l Airport – Bridgetown, Barbados – TBPB 

Top 10 destinations 
(for flights departing from ICAO codes C, K & MM) 


1. Princess Juliana Int’l Airport – St. Maarten Island, 
Netherlands Antilles – TNCM 

2. Providenciales Int’l Airport – Turks & Caicos Islands – MBPV
3. Lynden Pindling Int’l Airport – Nassau, Bahamas – MYNN
4. Clayton J. Lloyd Int’l Airport – The Valley, Anguilla – TQPF
5. Kahului Int’l Airport – Kahului, Hawaii, USA – PHOG
6. Cyril E. King Int’l Airport – St. Thomas Island, U.S. Virgin Islands – TIST
7. V.C. Bird Int’l Airport – St. John’s Island, Antigua – TAPA
8. Marsh Harbour Int’l Airport – Marsh Habour, Bahamas – MYAM
9. Grantley Adams Int’l Airport – Bridgetown, Barbados – TBPB
10. North Eleuthera Airport – Eleuthera Island, Bahamas – MYEH 

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