Avionco’s Josh Dodd talks about European Business Aviation in 2019

It’s a new year and we’re all back at work making things happen in the world of business aviation. As we roll out of January and into February, we took an opportunity to ask Josh Dodd, Managing Director of Avionco to give us his perspective and opinion on the state of the industry in Europe in 2019.

Like everything he does, Josh responded quickly and clearly with valuable knowledge to impart.  Overall, Josh advised us that while many of us feel like it’s a hectic, demanding and competitive business these days, we had better get used to it. After this past year of helping Clients manage their aircraft as well as providing charter services out of Avionco’s AOC in Guernsey, Channel Islands, he observed that the best way to describe private aviation growth and demands in Europe is “permanent whitewater”.

I’m from Alberta, Canada and I can tell you if you’re not ready to paddle, you’d best get onshore because this river isn’t about to slow down and make it easy on you”.  Every aspect of business aviation in Europe is growing and changing at a pace that creates real challenges and real opportunities at the same time.  Evolving customer demographics and purchasing habits are putting pressure on profitability, pilot shortages are putting pressure on owners and providers alike and overall demand for service speed and responsiveness continues to drive the way our industry needs to manage their business model.

The companies that perform well in 2019 will be the ones that can build their service model around customer demand with almost instant response times.  The days of bureaucratic, multi-level customer service are over or at the very least, changing.  More and more Clients want an accessible leadership team who are ready and able to get involved whenever necessary rather than being handled by a middle manager and having little contact with top management.  From Chief Pilot to successful business executive, “right” and “now” is how service is being defined.

Technology has driven people to expect more, faster – but it’s only as good as the speed with which people use that technology to manage business in real time.  Leadership and logistics will make it possible.  Maintenance and training will make it safe.

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