Hi, Per. Tell us about your vision for Avinode in 2022
Quite simply, our vision is to offer greater transparency and increased trust between operators and brokers in the marketplace.
Key to achieving this is setting the right expectations in terms of the price for a trip. By doing this, a buyer can feel confident they’re seeing a reliable price estimate when searching for an aircraft and the seller can reply with a quote at the click of a button.
In our experience, this transparency is what builds strong and long-lasting relationships between our members. In 2022, I look forward to us making a step change and getting even closer to realising our vision. I’m really excited about the future.
And what, in your opinion, is the biggest challenge in the business aviation sector right now?
In the wake of the global pandemic, we’ve seen a 125% surge in charter trips requested in Avinode. With that comes increased charter prices, ranging from a 2% increase in Europe to a 12% increase in the Americas.
This makes it an incredibly challenging market situation for operators and brokers.
High demand and low supply – just like in many other industries worldwide – puts extra strain on relationships between buyers and sellers. That’s why setting the right expectations from the outset is more important than ever.
How is Avinode working to make a positive change for the sector?
One of Avinode’s real strengths – and a reason the platform was ground-breaking from the beginning – is its pricing engine. By using an advanced set of calculations and data models, operators can build up their pricing using a multitude of pricing parameters.
In terms of change, we’ve focused on how to improve the price estimate of the listed aircraft in Avinode. The estimated price gives buyers a better idea of the final price. We’re shortly making the transition to present the estimate as the only price shown when searching for an aircraft. We believe this will impact the relationships in the marketplace in a really positive way.
Given that pricing is such a core feature of Avinode, what has the process been to making these changes?
We’ve been working in close collaboration with our members for the past 18 months to understand how we can create better transparency. This has made it possible to present much more reliable price estimates in our search results.
Our operator members have all the tools needed to build a very reliable price, and many of them have already embraced this change as an opportunity.
And finally, what are you hoping to see as a result of these improvements?
I’m very confident that we’ll see operators save time in the quoting process, and brokers will be able to search and find a reliable price for a trip faster. The process to source an aircraft becomes more efficient, as fewer requests can be sent for each trip.
Ultimately, this is another example of how we’re constantly evolving Avinode to make life easier for our members and help them to run their businesses more effectively.