Why PrivateFly.com won FlightGlobal’s Site of the Year award February 9, 2011
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, eBusiness Applications/Services, International Business Development, Internet Marketing.Tags: Aerospace, BizAv, eBusiness, International Business
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When FlightGlobal’s 2010 webbies winners were announced last week, it was probably the first time many people in the industry heard of PrivateFly.com. This small UK-based company was founded just over four years ago by Adam Twidell, an ex-RAF pilot and NetJets alumni. The company’s purpose is to compare instant pricing and book Private Jet flights from an accredited global network of operators. PrivateFly aims to bring the use of business aircraft into mainstream air travel. Sounds interesting, but what is so special about PrivateFly.com?
PrivateFly exemplifies how the Internet can be used to solve challenges that cannot be addressed in any other way, offering the possibility of truly industry changing innovation. Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly, agrees: “Every other area of travel and brokerage has been transformed by the Internet. Despite the creation of giants like NetJets and others, BizAv is still an extremely fragmented industry. For example, there are over 700 operators in Europe alone. We are aiming to be the disruptive technology that finally offers customers the transparency and flexibility they need to book a private flight from a safe and reliable operator at a competitive price.”
To achieve this goal, Twidell and his team have been hard at work designing the powerful technology behind the website. Harvesting data from aircraft databases, airport information, and other public sources, the development team in India produced a simple interface design with efficient functionality. Then it was time to involve the community of Operators. “That was the hardest part, but the recession helped a lot”, says Twidell. “Many operators were worried that this platform would generate price wars that would lower the value of their services. But once they saw that this was much more about safety, reliability, and transparency, they started coming on board. Our platform does not sacrifice luxury or customer service in favor of price. It provides the potential customer with knowledge to make an informed decision with the confidence they obtained the value they wanted. Small operators with a handful of jets but that offer great service can now be recognized globally on the value they provide rather than by the size of their marketing budgets.”
PrivateFly harvests industry knowledge and public information to instantaneously provide a “ballpark” pricing for any global trip from a small jaunt in Florida to a safari trip from the UK to Kenya. It then aims to educate the customer with the choice of aircrafts available for the trip as well as airport information. Finally it offers to send out for a formal quote from its network of operators. In the RFQ, the customer can specify additional requirements such as aircraft age or other services to further refine the list of targeted operators. The application is also available on iPhone. Already quite an achievement, Twidell says this is just the beginning: “We are working on introducing a feedback loop from both operators and customers to help raise the bar on quality. We also want to use technology to help educate customers about choices and options. Too many times have I flown American customers into Heathrow because nobody ever bothered to tell them about some of the other London BizAv airports such as Northolt or Farnborough that would have saved them thousands of dollars and potentially hours of ground transfer time. I would like to see the website offer customers alternatives based on aircraft size, final destination (after the airport), or specific services required. I also want to develop the mobile application to support the actual flight, not just the booking. For example, I think customers should be able to precisely locate their aircraft and access its pilot on their way to the airport from the convenience of their iPhone. ”
Today, the company is gathering momentum based on the successes it has earned with a number of operators as well as its stringent quality control. PrivateFly has dropped several operators from its network when they failed to meet its required service standards. Now in the middle of their next financing round, the company plans on expanding both its technology and its network with the £2M it hopes to raise.
PrivateFly has the potential of changing Business Air Charter in the same way iTunes changed the music industry. As its community grows, so will its functionalities and before you know it, this website will be the de-facto standard for private jet booking. Because it aims at profound industry changes by promoting transparency and distributed knowledge through web-based innovation, PrivateFly.com deservedly earned FlightGlobal’s Site of the Year award.
Business Aviation and Social Media Survey Results: 5 Findings and 5 Opportunities November 5, 2009
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, eBusiness Applications/Services, FaceBook, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, BizAv, eBusiness, Social Media, Twitter
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Based on the great success of the Social Media session at the recent NBAA annual event, I decided to further explore the topic with the business aviation audience through a very quick survey. The purpose was to quantify participation, catalog the interest, and collect (anonymous) demographics.
The survey was designed as a collaborative effort and then posted online for 5 business days. Participation was solicited mostly via Twitter, but also through posts in LinkedIn discussion boards. The complete result summary is available for download here (PDF). You can also contact me if you want the raw data in Excel. After reviewing the survey results, here are the 5 findings and 5 opportunities I discovered:
MY FINDINGS:
- Contrary to many reports, 73% of respondents indicate that social media platform access is NOT blocked at work. However, companies that prevent access generally do it for all social media sites except for LinkedIn. Only 41% of companies have a Social Media policy.
- LinkedIn is the premier e-Networking platform amongst business aviation professionals. Over 91% of respondents use it, but they indicated that looking for job postings was the least important use. They mostly use it to connect with colleagues and customers.
- Social Media is used in the executive suite. 60% of respondents were at a Director level or above. 57% were 40 year old or over.
- Twitter ranks highest amongst the platforms used by companies. Although it seems like all platforms are used fairly evenly.
- Companies have added social media as an additional news/marketing channel. 67% of respondents indicate that publishing news is the most important use of social media platform, followed by marketing/promotion (44%). A full 48% indicate that recruiting is the least important use of Social Media.
| Did you spot something else in the survey results? Do you have your own take? Please send me your feedback or post comments on this post and I’ll add it to this list. |
OPPORTUNITIES:
- Business Aviation is embracing social media at a good pace, probably faster than the rest of the A&D industry. Structuring the communications and properly combining websites, LinkedIn and Twitter will continue to be the trend. More can be done to use blogs as only 36% of respondents indicated their companies use them.
- The best way to combat the perception that social media is for kids to play with their friends on FaceBook is to do two things. First, as John Keller (Chief editor, Military & Aerospace Electronics) discussed in a recent blog, start calling it e-Networking. When social media is used for business, e-Networking is really its purpose. Second, get your executives to start using e-Networking effectively.
- I am a big believer in using e-Networking to enhance industry events and conferences. However, it seems like NBAA missed an opportunity, as most respondents indicated that the use of social media platforms made NO Difference in their experience of the event. There is much to be done in this area.
- E-Networking is about interaction and conversation. Only 35% of respondent said that soliciting ideas was the most important use of social media for their company. I think that e-networking is about sharing and collaborating not lecturing or selling. For example, companies should move away from looking at Twitter as another channel by which to distribute press releases. It is much more than that.
- Industry media and associations can take the lead in transforming the industry by facilitating the dialogue and the sharing of information through e-Networking platforms. Aerospace and Defense seems stuck in a “chicken and egg” loop: companies don’t use social media because no other company is using it. This survey shows that it is not true and that others are indeed using it. We need more opportunities to educate and encourage the industry.
I would like to thank the people that dialogued with me before and during the survey. Also, I would like to thank the tweeples that helped soliciting survey answers: @AWyss, @AvWeekBenet, @nonnyjorris, @NBAA, @CDHeisermann, @CutterAviation, @AeroPR, @ShowalterFlying, @GretemanGroup, @HeisteComm, @kevinmerritt, @FlightGlobal, @AviationWeek. What started as an experiment actually provided very interesting results. I would have liked more responses, but I wanted to run this survey as a Social Media platform experiment to validate its use as an interactive medium for our industry.
I would love to hear your feedback on this survey or on other surveys you think would be interesting. Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Ludo Van Vooren, a 15 years veteran of the industry, blogs about eBusiness, Social Media, Internet Marketing, and International Business Development.
