CJI Global 2020: Collins Aerospace – Recent growth is good news for business aviation

Commercial aviation’s loss is business aviation’s gain, according to Dori Henderson, vice president business aviation and digital solutions, Collins Aerospace.

“From a business aviation perspective, we are obviously very encouraged; our departures are up near 80% of what they were in 2019 and we predicted that. I think from our perspective we knew the commercial airlines were going to struggle and I think as less people are comfortable on the commercial side, that shift is going to happen on the charter side,” Henderson told delegates at CJI Global today. “So, its good news, its good news for business aviation.”

Henderson said operators were equally optimistic. “We talked to a couple of operators last week and they are at where they were in 2019 in terms of volumes. They’re seeing that trend is actually going to rise higher than what we have seen in 2019, as there might be shift away from commercial to more private aviation, as airlines continue to cut their flights and potentially cut down on regional destinations.”

Aside from Covid-19, Collins Aerospace is witnessing an emerging trend amongst its customers, where technological advances are enabling greater independence and control for the client over their flight. “Customers want smarter solutions. So; utilising the data to help me, the customer, make more informed decisions, faster. We at Collins, because we have the ability to access so much data, can do that. We call it single interaction, which probably isn’t the best term. But what it means is they go to one place for everything they need, so it is all integrated.”