StackAero: Charter Challenges, Opportunities Prompt Digitization

The heady mix of challenges and opportunities presented by the war in the Gulf is prompting private charter flight providers to achieve new levels of resourcefulness and resilience. According to IT specialists like StackAero, operators and brokers are increasingly tapping digitization to make sense of market complexity.

Last year, StackAero recorded a 56% increase in trips arranged using its Business Operations System (BOS). The company reported a strong increase in brokers using the platform, which is based on the Salesforce customer relationship management system, and said that the increase in business booked by users has prompted them to expand their teams.

“We expect that a significant proportion of day-to-day broker workflows will be digital-first within the next 12 to 24 months, if not fully digital from end to end,” said StackAero’s business development manager, Cat Buchanan. “The major shifts in working practices won’t result from dramatic technological leaps, but from the steady replacement of analogue processes—Word documents, emails, and PDFs, for example—by integrated, digital solutions. The new generation of charter brokers expect modern systems because they have grown up in a digital world, while their end clients similarly require smarter, digital charter quotes, better presented and delivered quickly and efficiently.”

According to Buchanan, BOS usage also signals a demand trend for larger aircraft, with more customers requesting super-midsize jets and larger rather than light jets. At the same time, the charter customer base is getting younger, prompting operators and brokers to deal with shifting priorities.

“I’d say that many customers are at least 10 years younger [than the sector’s traditional customer base] and they are very demanding clients,” Buchanan told AIN. “Image matters a lot to them, and they expect a lot. Whether they can afford that or are willing to pay for it is a different matter. Our product makes sure brokers and operators have the right tools to manage and deliver expectations.”

Like other software developers, StackAero is urging the private charter sector to replace what remain highly manual processes with automation. The company is steadfastly agnostic about integrating with other complementary platforms, including the Avinode marketplace. Among its customers in the charter sector are Leviate Air, Le Bas International, Jet Access, Prime Jet, Air Charter Scotland, HeliNY, and Ryan Aviation Group.

More Time for Personal Touches

“People in the industry come to us because they need to provide a high-end personal touch, and they find they can’t do this without technology,” Buchanan explained. “It is a differentiator in that it gives service providers more time for the personal touch, with detailed logs of what each high-net-worth client expects; more time to focus on whether the foie gras and champagne are being served at the right temperature.”

Apart from client demographics, the geography of the market continues to shift—not least in reaction to the current crisis in the Gulf. Until the conflict erupted at the end of February, StackAero saw “huge” growth, in part thanks to its position as an intercontinental connection point linking Asia with Europe. While short-term demand has spiked during the emergency, it remains unclear where the war’s end might leave the regional market.

Buchanan predicted continued growth in the U.S. charter sector, which she estimates accounts for as much as 70% of the global total. However, she caveated that point with the acceptance that it could be hard to gauge the longer-term headwinds resulting from elevated fuel costs and other dents to economic prosperity.

StackAero also sees potential for more market expansion in Latin America as industrialization spreads further across the region. By contrast, Buchanan concluded that Europe could remain stunted by cost burdens, including high taxes on private flights and mandates requiring greater use of sustainable aviation fuel.

In addition to charter operators and brokers, BOS is also available for corporate flight departments, including one major business aircraft manufacturer, which uses it to organize its extensive schedule of demonstration flights. This year, StackAero intends to add a new feature to help manage jet card balances.