Avinode Data Points to Mainly Favorable Charter Market

Charter flight platform Avinode, which has been tracking and supporting the global private aviation market for more than two decades, views current conditions as generally encouraging from the point of view of all stakeholders. Over the past three years, the company has seen the strongest growth in terms of numbers of business aircraft listed in its charter marketplace from the Middle East region (up 45%), followed by Asia-Pacific (+40%), the U.S. and Canada (+30%), and Europe (+10%).

“In the U.S. market, we’re seeing record numbers of [charter] operators, brokers, and aircraft on the platform, so that does look healthy to us, and clearly it is a market where people want to sell charter,” Harry Clarke, Avinode’s director of commercial development, said. “Right now, overall it feels like a stable situation in terms of demand and the desire to travel with a good supply to demand balance. In recent years, we have been used to giant swings.”

According to Avinode, charter operators and brokers are increasingly willing to invest in innovative technology to make their businesses more productive and profitable. Key factors can be achieving better pricing for flights and creating time to focus on customer service.

Clarke told AIN that average charter prices in the U.S. have been relatively flat. In his view, this gives well-run operators an opportunity to exploit “differentials” if they have the right data to prepare quotes.

One trend identified by Avinode’s data on flight requests is rising demand for eastbound transatlantic flights from the U.S. to Europe. For the past three months, these inquiries have been up by 17% and are set to be 16% higher than the same period last year for the fourth quarter. The company sees generally somewhat weaker demand in Europe, and especially in some particular markets such as Germany.

Strength in the U.S. market is also having other knock-on impacts in wider international markets, according to Avinode’s flight request data. “For instance, since the start of this year, we’ve seen a 20% increase in local Asian operators listing their aircraft in countries like Thailand and Indonesia, and this means U.S. charter brokers can benefit from availability elsewhere,” Clarke explained.

“Brokers still have a key role to play, and especially if they are using technology to support their role in making air charter travel a high-value experience, making sure they can deliver the right options to customers,” Clarke said.