An update on the evolution of JetBrokers Europe

Last year we reported on the pre-owned business jet market, how the first year of trading had gone for JetBrokers Europe and we also looked at a number of sectors of the market in some detail.

This document is an update specifically compiled in order to offer an overview of our second year of trading and take stock of where we are today and where we are planning to be tomorrow.

Whilst the number of aircraft we have available from European listings has increased, the key development is the quality of those listings. We now have a diverse range of aircraft available from Embraer Legacy down to Hawker Premier 1A, as well as a number of smaller and older craft. What’s more we completed sales on a Citation Sovereign and a Citation X in July.

We expected August 2012 to be quiet but whilst we didn’t sell any aircraft in Europe we did take on new listings including a GIII, Legacy, Premier 1A and a Hawker 800XP.

In addition, at the tail end of September or early October we should see another CL604 join our inventory, along with a Citation V and a CJ2.

During September we have seen a significant level of activity on our exclusively mandated aircraft with numerous offers currently under discussion, as well as further activity in respect of off market transactions.

Through our cooperation with JetBrokers Inc we have now successfully sold our first transatlantic aircraft, a Citation X. This aircraft was owned by a European but was based in the US so we were able to give local support to the owner whilst the JetBrokers Inc team were able to offer local support to the prospect/buyer. We now have a GIII available through the same arrangement between our two companies.

We have worked well with a number of banks in possession of aircraft and have sold these assets regardless of whether they were a 3 year old Citation Sovereign or a 27 year old Citation IISP. We currently have a good number of aircraft listed with banks and clearly this is a credit to Brendan’s relationships in this sector after a good number of years in aviation finance.

At our last meeting we had just relocated to Farnborough Airport, a decision which has greatly enhanced our reputation and our visibility. This arrangement continues to work well for the business.

Over the past year we have seen an encouraging level of media exposure for the business (thank you) and there is no doubt that the JetBrokers Europe name is now pretty well known. Not only have we seen coverage in most of the trade press but also in the FT, NYT and IHT which is great for building the brand identity.

Keen to demonstrate some degree of corporate social responsibility we chose fly2help as our charity of choice for 2011 and this has proved very successful for both organisations.  We effectively introduce our clients and contacts to the charity, explain how the Airsmiles Day works and as soon as they are interested we introduce them to the charity. Consequently the lifeblood of the charity, the aircraft, is constantly being replenished and some fantastic experiences are offered to children and their families which otherwise would never happen. Without doubt, as long as f2h want to continue this relationship, we will continue our support.

Brendan Lodge has made quite a name for himself on the “speaker circuit” and has chosen some challenging topics to bring to the table with some great reaction.

The Aviation Supper Club, an initiative started by Brendan Lodge, continues to go from strength to strength and whilst nothing to do with JetBrokers Europe we do gain a good degree of industry exposure an familiarity as a result of Brendan’s efforts.

We continue to be creative and resourceful in our approach to the market and representing our client’s aircraft to the full. Not only do we have extensive global physical relationships but we are also very active users of social networks. The primary media are LinkedIn and Twitter and in both cases we have evidenced that either forum can generate interest.

Finally, I should also mention the creation of Aura Aviation as the UK distributor of Socata TBM850 aircraft. Based at Oxford Airport and run by Adrian Munday, the business began trading at the start of 2011. Aura and JetBrokers Europe are stand-alone trading entities under a common ownership and it remains important that JetBrokers Europe is not seen solely as a broker of pre-owned turboprops and equally that Aura is seen as being totally focussed on the TBM product.