AEG Fuels (Booth 4842) arrives at this year’s NBAA-BACE marking the official launch of AEG Connect, its branded dealer network. The announcement is the culmination of more than a year of planning, in which the Miami-based aviation fuel provider has already recruited its initial members. “We have quietly launched it over the last year or so,” said David Diulus, v-p of AEG Connect, explaining the company wanted to reach a certain number of members before making the news public. “This year and into next year we’re going to be expanding significantly.”
The network started with several locations which are in the process of rolling out their AEG branding: US Aviation Jet Center at Florida’s Space Coast Regional Airport, National Jets at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, SkyPlace FBO at San Antonio International Airport, Legacy Jet Center at Oklahoma’s Tulsa International Airport, Kansas Jet Center at Manhattan (Kansas) Regional Airport, and Boston Executive at Norwood Memorial Airport in Massachusetts.
In Brazil, it has five of TAM Aviação Executiva’s locations (Manaus, Congonhas, Confins, Pampulha, and Guarulhos) onboard. This week at NBAA-BACE, the company announced its newest member, Embassair, a facility that will open at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport later this year.
With more than 3,500 FBOs in the U.S. alone, Diulus believes there is ample room for network growth amid the existing branded fuel providers. “To say that we will be in 600 locations overnight, that’s obviously not the case,” he told AIN. “I think it’s very realistic to be adding anywhere from 10 to 20 new locations on a yearly basis.” The company plans to focus its expansion in the U.S. market initially.
As existing fueling contracts for rival fuel providers expire, AEG will be touting the benefits of its Connect platform to entice those FBOs. “We feel there is a segment of the market that is looking to grow their revenue connecting the people and the planes to the [fuel] product and getting airplanes on their ramps,” explained Diulus, who in his more than three decades with Universal Weather and Aviation ran that company’s UV Air fuel program.
“We feel that we have a sales and marketing capability that will be able to do that and differentiate how we can provide support to these FBOs by helping them grow their topline revenue,” he added.
AEG, which has been in the fuel business since the late 1980s, works with more than 3,000 suppliers worldwide. “We view this as a natural extension to move into supplying FBOs with a branded program and supporting the FBO market,” said Diulus.
The AEG Connect program will provide now-standard features to its branded locations such as in-house safety, training, and customer-loyalty programs. As well, the company through its industry contacts, has agreements in place to secure new refuelers, work with fuel card processors, and even supply uniforms if required.
“One of our really big differentiators is our ability to leverage our 50 global sales representatives and use data scientists to look at patterns of flight and traffic to help drive more airplanes and more business,” Diulus said. “We’re able to do that through using the data and the digital sales and marketing.”
This week at NBAA-BACE, AEG has representatives from its Connect network at its booth, along with its sales team to speak with prospective new members.