The triumph of business aviation

A real paradox! While the French economy has been sluggish for a number of years, business aviation is going from strength to strength. The business aircraft fleet grew by 3.3 % in 2005, while the European fleet grew by 5.5 %. The predominance of the United States in this sector is absolute. America has a 70 % share of the business aviation market, compared with 10 % for the Europe of Twenty-Five.

And yet, France's position in the business aviation world is not so bad. It has the sixth largest fleet of aircraft in the world and the second largest in Europe, behind Germany. Paris-Le Bourget is Europe's leading - or second, depending on certain criteria - business airport, with traffic reaching over 121,000 passengers in 2005, followed by hubs such as Cannes-Mandelieu and Lyon-Bron, which are among the busiest on the continent, with annual growth rates that would be the envy of some major airports.

The success of business hubs is often due to the lack of scheduled air services from the regions. For example, Cannes-Mandelieu saw its passenger traffic grow by 157 % between 2001 and 2005, Le Mans was not to be outdone with 175 % over the same period, while Saint-Nazaire posted an increase of 105 % despite its proximity to Nantes-Atlantique international airport.

Image change

What is behind this development? Firstly, a change in the image of business aviation. For a long time, business aviation (or general aviation) evoked in the collective unconscious memories of series from the 1980s in which wealthy businessmen, sunglasses covering half their faces, disembark from a plane at an American airport only to be immediately whisked away in a limousine. It took France more than twenty years to overcome this cliché. "More and more companies are realising that there's nothing glamorous about a business jet, but that on the contrary, it saves them time and therefore makes substantial savings. This is as true for a business mission as it is for a charter as part of an incentive trip," explains Bruno Perdriel, Managing Director of Pro Sky Airbroker, a company specialising in aircraft rental. "The sector is becoming more democratic. Europe is catching up with the United States. Companies have realised that business aviation saves time", says Laurence Ducerf, Sales and Marketing Director of Aero Services.

Over the last decade, and especially in the last three or four years, business aviation has been able to attract new customers, by attacking one of the most promising markets, that of SMEs. "I prefer to talk about corporate aviation rather than business aviation. Because in my company, we more often transport executives than the bosses of large French companies", says Guillaume Collinot, manager of Aérovision, a general aviation company based in Toulouse. The substantial productivity gains offered by private aviation generally tip the balance in the favour of corporate decision-makers. This starts with business travel, which accounts for 40 % of general aviation activity. "Charters for birthdays or celebrity travel no longer account for much of our business," says Guillaume Collinot.

Faster formalities

Today, the time constraints inherent in scheduled aviation are increasingly recognised by companies and experienced as potential constraints. Security measures have lengthened the time spent at the airport; the timetables of scheduled carriers mean that meetings cannot be held in several different places in the course of the same day, "a constraint that is particularly true when it comes to cross-border connections between the provinces and the provinces", confirms Bernadette Deschamps, Business Aviation Client Manager at broker Air Partner; finally, the delays experienced with traditional airlines and a decline in the quality of services work against scheduled transport. That leaves business aviation.

This brings two essential benefits: increased productivity and flexibility. Travel time is reduced to a minimum thanks to rapid, à la carte boarding and the possibility of carrying out an assignment in less than a day. This reduces the costs of assignments such as meals, hotel nights and paid overtime. In fact, the plane is an extension of the office, as it allows you to work during the flight. For Guillaume Collinot, from Aérovision, the notion of confidentiality is an essential element of corporate aviation: "Imagine, for example, that in a privatised jet, a group of lawyers can continue to work on a case without fear of being eavesdropped on.

The other advantage is guaranteed flexibility. "We shouldn't forget that a business airline has service standards comparable to those of a hotel. Staff are totally flexible and at the customer's disposal. For example, the passenger has access to the captain's mobile phone to change a timetable if necessary", explains Bernadette Deschamps of Air Partner. Other advantages include the possibility of using airfields not served by a scheduled airline. There are some 2,000 of these in Europe! Landing on small hubs means faster embarkation and disembarkation formalities and total flexibility in timetables, as these airfields are rarely saturated. "It's the crew that waits for the customer, not the other way round. As for customs and immigration services, they are often reduced to their simplest form", Bernadette Deschamps points out.

The emergence of fractional ownership in aviation - championed by companies such as NetJets and FlexiJet - has brought flexibility and financial flexibility to businesses and even individuals. Instead of owning and maintaining a fleet of aircraft, timeshare offers a quota of annual hours on an aircraft, at a lower cost of course. Timeshare has been a runaway success in Europe. The American company NetJets, which has become Europe's largest business aviation operator, has seen its business volume multiply: since 2002, it has grown by more than 1,250 %!

Whereas in 2002, NetJets Europe had just 89 customers and fourteen jets in Europe, it now has 20 % of all the very long-range aircraft on the continent, and its customer base includes more than 1,200 organisations, entrepreneurs and high-end travellers. NetJets has also just ordered 24 Falcon 7X jets from Dassault Aviation, the largest business aviation order ever recorded in Europe, a contract worth more than $1.1 billion. The aircraft, which will be delivered from 2008, will enable NetJets customers to fly from Paris to Los Angeles in a single bound...

Other leasing formulas have also been developed, such as a system of pre-purchased flight time cards, making it possible to offer business aviation that is completely adapted to demand. Last July, Bombardier Flexjet, the timeshare programme of aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace and Jet Solutions LLC, launched the Flexjet 25 jet card, offering a programme of flights by the hour for a prepaid card of 25, 30 or 35 hours, "the best solution for an optimum choice of aircraft, travel flexibility and value for money", said Sylvain Lévesque, vice-president of marketing at Flexjet, when presenting the product. The card is valid for between 275 and 365 days and is marketed in France by Aero Services.

A la carte formulas

Air Partner offers a similar package. "It's easy for a company to optimise this card and, what's more, to keep within its travel budget," says Gilles Meynard, General Manager France at Air Partner. Generally speaking, chartering a business flight is only slightly more expensive than a scheduled flight "as soon as there are several people travelling and especially if there are several touches during the day", explains Bruno Perdriel. His company Pro Sky even offers a website where you can simulate the cost of hiring an aircraft according to your criteria (see box). Business aviation is not just about transporting a few businessmen on tour. It is increasingly being used to transport large groups of companies attending a conference or meeting, or carrying out what is now known as a roadshow, i.e. a tour of several sites belonging to the company.

This type of operation requires a more sophisticated organisation, which is generally the responsibility of aircraft brokers, who are responsible for finding the best aircraft at the best cost. "We can mobilise any type of aircraft for an operation, from a seven-seater jet to a 300-seat Boeing 747, if necessary. For example, we have been seeing very strong demand for some time now for business jets, which are Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 aircraft equipped only with a business class", says Laurent Battard, Sales Director at Pro Sky France. The virtual fleet - the one that the broker is able to mobilise - can comprise several hundred aircraft, offering customers an almost infinite choice.

The crews most often come from Western European countries, where safety and maintenance criteria are the strictest. France is one of the most rigorous in terms of safety and good aircraft maintenance," stresses Bernadette Deschamps. On the other hand, France remains expensive, and we regularly call on foreign crews from Belgium, Germany or Austria, where operating costs are more reasonable."

Motivational travel remains an important aspect of large-capacity aircraft rental. This is an area that is experiencing strong growth, albeit with some changes compared with a few years ago," notes Bruno Perdriel. The economic crisis and new security measures have in fact refocused incentive travel on destinations close to the Mediterranean Basin or in Europe. "Central Europe with Prague, but also Morocco and Spain are very popular", continues the director of Pro Sky France.

Here again, the notion of excellence and personalised service makes all the difference to a scheduled airline. For Pro Sky, chartering a plane for a private company means that the aircraft can be decked out in the company's colours, with seat headrests emblazoned with the company's name, personalised colours for bouquets of flowers or a special meal. "I have to admit that the luxury aspect - caviar, champagne afloat jet-set style - is no longer really in vogue. On the contrary, our customers are looking for efficiency and discretion", explains Bruno Perdriel. A sure sign that business aviation is becoming commonplace is that it is adopting all the signs of a certain normality.