Deeper knowledge - Charlotte Pedersen on Luxaviation Helicopters Charter Alliance

We've already wrote about the Luxaviation Helicopters Charter Alliance. As we are curious to find out much more and in details, we had to ask Charlotte Pedersen to reveal us some "inside information". So let's find out together.....

Q.       Recently launched Luxaviation Helicopters Charter Alliance – in your opinion, most important benefits?

A.  The most important benefits to the Luxaviation Helicopters Charter Alliance are that members are part of a global helicopter charter network. This helps promote your company’s name – worldwide.

There are more than 5,000 helicopter companies in the world and they all have different names and properties. Aside from the largest 5-10 companies, most others are smaller, local companies with 1-10 helicopters in their fleets. These companies are typically only known in their own region, meaning that if you are a traveller coming from the other side of the world and you want to book a helicopter charter flight, you do not know which company to call and you might end up using Google. Some of these helicopter companies might not have a website in English, yet they might be the best local operator. This is where Luxaviation Helicopters comes in. We make the link between the traveller and the best local operators and provide these companies with international attention. We connect the dots and bring travellers and companies together.

Furthermore, our helicopter charter network is a global family – we support the companies with any needs they might have. We share knowledge and expertise, provide training if needed, as well as solutions for complicated requests. We also support each other with business opportunities, help each other in searches for helicopters, as well as pre-buy inspections. Since our alliance partners are located in separate regions and countries, they are not direct competitors and, as such, there can be great win-win situations by working together and forwarding opportunities to each other.

Q.       How did you choose partners? Is it important to fully share the vision and mission you stated even before the launch?

A.  We have chosen our partners based on in-depth knowledge of the business area. We use both validated data and research, plus our network in the helicopter world to introduce us to the industry’s top players. Our vision from the beginning was to find operators with the right mindset, the correct certifications and personable company management. The last part might seem strange but, in reality, it is important that you work with professional and pleasant people. Furthermore, if the management is likeable, there is a high chance that the company culture is strong. This is one of the most important areas of safe aviation practice. After a thorough audit, we invite the company to join our alliance and we go out and jointly promote all the operators to the world’s helicopter travellers. Our goal here is to increase the charter requests to the alliance network and thereby support their growth.

Q.       What part of the world is the next one for the expansion of this charter alliance?

A.  We work across all of the world’s regions. Our priority is to ensure that covers capital cities and popular holiday destinations; however, since we launched the alliance, we have been extremely busy and we are working closely with operators in different regions at the same time. If we had more hands and hours in the day available, we would expand even faster, but our compliance process takes some time and therefore we are limited to enlisting 1-2 operators per month. The alliance started out as a project – we wanted to ensure that the idea worked before we expanded it. It’s turned out to be very successful, but we are still cautious – we are only at the beginning of our process and we do not want to promise the operators more traffic and growth if we cannot justify this with proper data. We are very transparent towards our alliance partners and we work closely together with each of them, to ensure that we bring them value. The first feedback we have received has been very positive; one company experienced a 20% growth in incoming traffic and charter requests; another one is located in an area where we constantly send business jet clients and they now receive weekly bookings. A third company had the need for professional consultancy support, which we assisted them with. 

Q.       Any further plans in order to extend service package?

A.  Yes, we are constantly developing the services available across our alliance network, by finding interesting offers for members and negotiating with suppliers for the best prices. Since the fleet is growing, so is our buying power, which is bringing with it interesting solutions for our members. I am looking forward to establishing connections with airlines, since our alliance companies are all located around the hubs for large airlines. A natural extension of services could be to directly connect to airline travellers in all our locations. Some of our alliance members already provide this service to the airline industry; however, I can still see further opportunities in this area. And the next step is, of course, that our partner companies will step into the UAM world.