The Jet Business to include helicopters

The Jet Business founder Steve Varsano and his marketing team are at EBACE
in Geneva to
highlight their new added proposition –
helicopters.

“We have renderings for an
executive helicopter app which we are now fine-tuning ready for launch by the
summer,” said Steve Varsano.  “We can even take the Showroom’s Airbus ACJ
cabin and fit a helicopter interior inside if one of the OEMs would like to showcase
a new model.”

“Every client that has
walked through our doors has been genuinely interested in the aircraft market
and the technology we are showcasing,” Varsano said.  Some 20% of visitors
are first time buyers, but the majority of its business is from repeat,
referral clients and a rapidly increasing base of new face to face
introductions.  

 The interest we
are receiving here in the showroom, mirrors the fact that the market for
pre-owned aircraft, especially at the upper end of the market continues to
grow. While in Europe some 333 pre-owned jets were transacted and there were a
total 129 (new) business aircraft deliveries into the region in 2011, it is the
new world, the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), which are now
starting to make a significant impact in the sector. Brazil
purchased 46 pre-owned jets in 2011 and 149 new aircraft.  It is now the
third biggest country for private jets (691) behind the US (11,027) and Mexico (748).  In total the
BRIC market now embraces 1,815 business aircraft (Brazil
= 691, Russia 132; India 157 and China 144).

“We are selective about what
we take on,” says Varsano.  “The majority of clients visiting us are
looking for super mid-size, long range or ultra long range aircraft, but
occasionally they want a business turboprop in addition to a jet to complement
the jet on short range trips. In addition, there is a steady interest in
executive helicopters.”

Furthermore,
with the emphasis these emerging market buyers place on interiors – impacting the price a client is prepared to pay by an average $500k-$2
million – Varsano also wants to enhance its iPad
application to help clients design their own interiors.  “We are moving
towards an application where we can change the colours of aircraft seats or choice
of material, in an instantaneous virtual representation of the cabin –
with just a few simple clicks, reducing what previously took months to
complete, to just minutes.”

 Steve Varsano
believes that business aviation and its clientele base can expand dramatically
if customers are armed with knowledge about how to go about purchasing or
leasing a jet and expose all the options open to them, as well as market
aircraft in a way that has never existed before. “This is especially
significant to the clientele we are courting – countries such as Indonesia, South
Africa, China,
India and the Ukraine,” he comments.

Varsano has
three decades of global experience brokering aircraft. Since 1980 he has
brokered more than 300 aircraft transactions with a combined value of more than
$3 billion, representing both buyers and purchasers. 

A graduate from Embry Riddle
Aeronautical University,
Steve Varsano started his aviation career with the General Aviation Manufacturers
Association (GAMA) before starting to trade business aircraft and creating The
Jet Business.