The Aviation Business

It may surprise you to know that entrepreneurial, small-business opportunities do exist in the aviation trade, if you plan well enough and if you appreciate your industry entry point realistically enough.

The opportunity I am going to talk about is corporate and charter inflight jet service. According to the National Business Aviation Association, commercial air carriers serve fewer than 600 airports in the United States, while business aircraft use more than 5,000 airports in America (NBAA), many of which are located in medium- and smaller-size towns and cities. Indeed, the hard business fact is that proprietary aviation may be the only form of efficient business transportation to such locations.

Then there is the appeal of corporate jets, whether the corporation owns its own fleet or--given the $2.6-million pricetag on the most modest corporate jets--sets up a timeshare arrangement with other corporations to save cash outlays (Banks 385). As Fortune Magazine rec

. . .
l for independent inflight service providers exist most strongly. Essentially, you would be running a temporary-help service--a longtime small-business favorite--specializing in flight services. Your employees? Experienced flight attendants, who would come to you already trained in safety and service. The customer-specific service angle would allow you to staff the flights according to such special attendant skills as language and knowledge of destination cities, whether in the U.S. or overseas. It's all very well to say that there is opportunity. How can you exploit it profitably? Essentially you do what you would do for any other small business: gather industry information, analyze it, and then incorporate it, along with financial projections, into a business plan suitable for presentation to a loan or investment committee. Begin by collecting published information on the subject in general. Apart from clipping every article you come across on the topic of corporate-jet inflight services and putting it in a folder designed for that purpose (Slosman 40), start gathering industry data directly, from the trade. Contact trade associations for promotional materials such as brochures, membership requirements, sample copies of news
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Airlines, Fortune Magazine, Financial Management, , Columbus Ohio, America NBAA, Aviation Association, Henry Sedgwick, Inflight NATSS, Service Association, business aviation, business plan, national business, corporate jet, farnham 54, aviation association, national business aviation, business aviation association, flight attendants, experienced business planners, win venture capital, save cash, service association, inflight service, plans win venture,
Approximate Word count = 1318
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The Aviation Business