A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

Charter market data services provider Avinode (Booth No. 2120) of Goteborg, Sweden, will present the Avinode 2013 Business Forecast followed by a panel discussion with charter operators at 1 p.m. today in Room N220A here at the NBAA convention. The <a href="http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ainalerts/2012-10-02/charter-demand-increase-suggests-long-term-recovery">Avinode Business Forecast</a> quantifies expected charter activity in total hours as well as by regional and aircraft category demand and will include a review of about 12 utilization trends the company has seen recently in the U.S. and Europe.


Though Avinode’s primary charter broker client base is in Europe, it currently serves some 180 charter brokers and 310 charter operators acting as brokers in the U.S., which is the focus of the market forecast that it is releasing today. The data will be of particular interest to “people who have a general interest in developments in different regional [charter] markets,” said Magnus Henriksson, Avinode business unit director. He anticipates that aircraft OEM market analysis teams will also be on hand for the release. “Flight activity is a good measurement of the health of the industry, so anyone who tracks the industry growth and development in the [U.S.] should have an interest in this,” he said.


Following the presentation of the forecast data, Avinode will host a panel discussion about the current air-charter marketplace featuring representatives from five charter operators (three from the U.S.): Clay Lacy Aviation, Executive Jet Management (EJM) and Jet Aviation, along with the UK’s Acropolis Aviation and Hong Kong’s Metrojet.


Preliminary data provided to AIN doesn’t give cause for cheer in the becalmed charter space. “If we look at forecast going forward, total growth in the U.S. next year is 0.8 percent,” Henriksson said. “The Southeast will grow 3 percent, the Western region will grow 1.8 percent, the Northeast minus one percent and Midwest minus 4 percent.”


Avinode, which celebrated its 10th anniversary at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) this year, markets a search engine for charter brokers enabling accurate, real-time sourcing and pricing of aircraft availability. The company pioneered what is now a bustling online wholesale air charter marketplace and also provides the empty-leg search engines and listings found on many retail charter websites.


Whatever numbers the final forecast projects, Avinode believes the report will underscore its expertise in gathering and analyzing aviation market data that goes well beyond air charter and that can be deployed for customized reports and research.


“I think people are very much unaware of [our] depth of total market data; we’re not only charter,” said Henriksson. “A lot of people in the industry don’t really know how much data we’re sitting on and how much data we can analyze, and the capabilities we have with our analytical team.” Avinode’s U.S. office in Miami puts its services “much closer to the customer,” he said. “We have people working in the same time zones, people that can come out and visit [clients]. You don’t have to accommodate yourself to the working time zone of Europeans.”


At NBAA, Avinode is sharing its booth with client charter-management companies including Avjet, Executive Air Services, Jet Flight International, Polaris Aviation, Acropolis Aviation, Austria’s Amira Air, Capital Jets of Russia, Global Aviation from Brazil and Longtail Aviation from Bermuda. Avinode representatives are on hand to demonstrate the company’s products, and attendees can talk to the operators about how they use the data it provides. The company also will host its annual “champagne mingle” at the booth tomorrow at 5 p.m.

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