Mirai’s exclusive interview with WINGX’s Managing Director Richard Koe
Richard Koe is the managing director of WINGX Advance GmbH. WINGX, based in Germany and founded in 2011, it provides business intelligence for the global private jet market.
WINGX researches and tracks market data to build analytics that assist customers in decision making. WINGX customers span the entire industry supply chain, from airports, operators and manufacturers to industry investors and financial analysts.
Richard, there’s quite a lot of noise being made about the democratization of private aviation these days, what are your thoughts on the digitization of the marketplace?
Business jets will not fully democratize any time soon, in the sense that they will be affordable to only a very small percentage of the population that can fly frequently rather than on an occasional charter.
Currently, the % of users is barely one-tenth of one percent, so if the industry could increase its customer base to half of one percent that would significantly increase the market. That’s realistic as there are certainly many people with the wealth but not yet the experience of flying private.
One of the reasons this potential market has not flown is that the industry is fragmented and “under” digitized, so does a poor job of marketing its product, and is inefficient at joining all the dots required to provide an efficient, holistic customer service (the front-end appears smooth enough to the customer but the back end can be chaotic).
If this is fixed (and incrementally the industry is digitizing its supply chain) then the provision of flights will get significantly more efficient, less costly and bring prices down.
The current vision for private aviation, especially at Mirai, is about efficiency and how utilising an autonomous process enables a far simpler and less arduous booking experience. Do you think the industry is ready for such drastic changes?
Some proportion of the fleet is ready for this, especially as the big operators combine and consolidate into hybrid airlines. But the majority of the fleet will remain fragmented and focused on being private flight departments.
The European private aviation sector seems to have gone through a mercurial fluctuation this year, do you think next year could see more sustainability?
The sector has grown, in terms of users and aircraft owners. It’s coming down off its post-covid rebound and, more so than in America, may suffer from the economic downturn.
What are your thoughts in addressing the industry’s need for smart alternatives in comparison to the existing fractional model?
Fractional membership has proved a durable and popular product as it provides guaranteed service levels and consistency. Other programme-based services can compete on the same level, as long as operators cover their expense of owning the aircraft.
With a new wave of younger wealth coming into the private aviation space, do you think engaging new audiences by efficient, automated, and transparent applications is a recipe for success?
This is essential, probably for all users at this point, young or old, the expectation of totally transparent, versatile and connected e-commerce platforms is now completely embedded for all other services.
What do you think has affected the growth in the private aviation industry this year?
For the first half of the year, still the pent-up demand to travel post-covid, especially from business.
Do you see any trends in data from specific untapped markets?
Geographically, lots of potential for more business aviation in the Middle East, Africa, and South America. In terms of product, further success to exploit in hybrid shuttle programs and per-set charters.
Where do you see the industry in terms of advancement in 5 years?
The economic slowdown/recession will put limits on the emergence of EVTOL in that period so the industry will need to weather the negative climate optics, which could be a serious threat. But it’s reasonable to expect that a sizeable proportion of the newcomers post-covid will stay in the business, and that will significantly increase the market size.
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