The future of the private jet market and going beyond to deliver exceptional charter flights
Whether you’re flying for business or leisure, Air Partner’s private jet experts go above and beyond to arrange an exceptional flight experience, tailored to your exact requirements.
Meet Claudia Watt, Head of Business Development for Private Jets UK. In this interview, Claudia shares her insights into how her team approaches a charter flight request, the importance of operator relationships, and how the private jet market could change over the next five years.
Can you tell us about your role at Air Partner?
I am the Head of Business Development for Private Jets in the UK, managing a team of 11 people as well as being responsible for my own book of clients. The purpose of the Business Development team is to act as a hybrid role between Account Management and Sales. This means we bring in our own clients, arrange their flights and ensure they are all well looked after.
What is your background in the private aviation industry?
I started out in the luxury travel business. I wanted to do some travelling, and I sought out a job that would allow me to do that. I quickly realised that it was the sales element of the role that I really enjoyed. I joined a private jet start-up business and I worked in their sales team for just shy of six years, beginning as a Sales Executive and moving up to Head of Sales, looking after the UK and Rest of World market.
In January 2020, I left this company and moved to Air Partner, where I started as a Senior Business Development Manager with a view to growing a team of like-minded people to capture new business and re-engage former customers, and this is what we’ve been successfully doing for the last five years.
How has your role changed over the course of your time at Air Partner? And what are the key objectives for your team?
With my promotion to Head of Business Development came a larger scope to grow the team – it’s well known in this industry that customer books don’t grow overnight, so we’re actively recruiting people with a strong client base. As my team grew and the demand for scale increased, it has allowed me to take a more strategic role, which includes initiatives such as expanding our Flight Services team, who assist the wider team throughout the booking process, adding a layer to our customer service.
It has also allowed me to ensure that my team is attending the right events to put ourselves in front of the right people. I’ve promoted two members of my team to give them the opportunity to take on day-to-day management, which has been positive for their professional growth. Moving forward, our target remains to grow the business.
Tell us about your favourite charter you have arranged for a client.
One of my favourite charter flights was one I arranged in February 2023. The request came from a family who owned their own aircraft that had a technical issue, and they had a last-minute request to move their family members across Europe to Switzerland, where they would then depart on a long-haul charter. This was during a time when there was limited aircraft availability and airport slots.
The reason why I enjoyed arranging this charter was that we had 5 aircraft booked for them at one point, and to get the aircraft where they needed them to be, we rotated aircraft from existing slots around to other nearby airports. It was a logistical challenge – like puzzle pieces slotting into place – and it was very rewarding.
People told us it wouldn’t be possible, then we made it possible. It’s these kinds of charter flights that are always the most rewarding.
What is your philosophy for delivering exceptional client service?
We’ve had a long time to perfect this! I think the reason why we get such a high return rate of customers is due to our attention to detail. Flying by private jet is a personal experience. The expectation for the customer when booking a private flight is that everything should be perfect. In reality, most charter brokers are short on time, and so are operators. As such, things get rushed.
To appropriately brief operators with flight requirements, there can be a lot of chasing required in the background to ensure all the details align with our high standards. This is where our Flight Services team comes in, working closely with our clients to ensure no flight details fall through the cracks. Having a team of professionals whose administrative attention to detail is second to none helps us deliver an exceptional service.
For example, the UK changed rules where if there is a mistake on the passenger manifest, this results in a flight delay of two hours. This means that you’re putting your faith in an operator that has hundreds of other flights that week and may not be as familiar with the rules as we are. So, we go a step forward. We request the physical paperwork that operators send to UK airports to triple-check that there are no mistakes. Occasionally, there are mistakes in this paperwork, which could potentially cause a two-hour delay if they weren’t corrected by our team. All this happens in the background.
It's also about the extra touches, such as sourcing films for clients on their weekend flight because they don’t have the movies they want to watch on board. Clients appreciate this, as everything else is a given and should be that way, even if it does mean that we’re moving mountains to make it happen!
What are the key strengths of Air Partner that set it apart from competitors?
Where Air Partner is different is that we are well-liked across the aviation industry and by the operators that we work with. Operators enjoy working with us and are prepared to go above and beyond to ensure we maintain a strong working relationship.
In terms of the team at Air Partner, our strength is that we really think about our clients’ requests and treat them as if they were our own. Sometimes clients will send us competitive quotes, and it shocks us when the aircraft doesn’t make sense for the trip, or the route is incorrect based on airport opening hours. Some brokers in other companies have KPIs to get quotes sent out to the customer within an hour - this does not give you an opportunity to double-check the request and think about what is being asked. I’d much rather have my team take a full day to work the market and propose one or two solid options to the client, rather than overwhelm them with nine different options, and clearly explain what’s being proposed.
The expertise and thoughtfulness of the Air Partner team is what make us stand out above the rest. Our heritage is also something that takes us a long way with both clients and operators. When operators get an Air Partner request, they take it seriously, and our requests are often given priority if plans go unexpectedly wrong.
How important is Air Partner’s 65-year heritage in building our reputation?
Having been around for such a long time always puts you in good standing, but it’s more so that our team treats operators with a great deal of respect. They are our clients as much as our customers are our clients. It’s the combination of our rich heritage and the great relationships with operators we’ve built over the years.
Which trends do you see for the future of private jet operations over the next 10 years?
From a challenge perspective, the ever-changing climate is a potential obstacle we’re aware of and embracing. We need to work together to keep the private jet market strong, and in a way that allows us to take advantage of Carbon Offsetting and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), and we may find that some of those practices become mandatory, whether this is government-mandated or company-mandated. It will always be a learning curve for clients to understand why their flight is going to cost more, but in the same breath, we’re going to see clients who are more willing to pay for initiatives such as SAF because the understanding of the benefits has never been clearer.
With regards to travel trends, we don’t tend to see a huge variation when it comes to the leisure market. Our clients enjoy flying to the same destinations year after year. Following COVID, corporate flying was the last to come back, and it isn’t where it was pre-COVID levels.
Commercial airline travel is becoming more expensive, and the service isn’t up to the standards that our clients demand. We are receiving requests from clients who have been able to afford private charter for a long time but are now trying it with us for the first time.
I anticipate a new wave of clients who understand more about the accessibility of private jet travel. It will no longer be just C-Suite individuals at Fortune 500 companies. I can see the demographic changing thanks to the influence of social media and technology-focused platforms.
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