FABULOUS MEDIA APPEARANCE OF CEPA DURING EBACE 2010
May 4th, 2010 - BCA Show News Dagmar Grossmann has been elected among the Top 10 Leaders of European Business Aviation as the only woman!
"Once again BCA Show News is featuring our annual listing of the Top 10 Leaders of European Business Aviation. We pick the movers and shakers, those who are helping create demand for business aviation through clever marketing and innovation, and those who are influential in polishing business aviation`s image. Many are investing in aircraft and new facilities in preparation for sunnier skies ahead..."
To read whole article naming the Top 10, please click here...
May 4th, 2010 - BCA Show News "Grossmann Jet Service Serves the Czechs"
to read whole article, please click here...
May 5th, 2010 - AIN EBACE Convention News "New CEPA show in Prague will boost bizav out east"
to read whole article, please click here...
May 4th, 2010 - Financial Times INTERVIEW WITH DAGMAR GROSSMANN
Central Europe is a great place for taking existing business models from more advanced economies and transplanting them. That was what occurred to Dagmar Grossmann when she was looking for a place to get back into the jet charter business.
Chartering jets for business people who have to move quickly from city to city is old hat in the US and western Europe, but it was a relatively new idea in central Europe in 2004, when most of the region was joining the European Union.
A few of central Europe's wealthiest entrepreneurs had their own aircraft, but everyone else was stuck with commercial airlines.
"I did market research and found that there was nothing in central Europe," says Ms Grossmann, an Austrian who had run a similar venture in Vienna with her former husband.
Although she initially thought Poland made a better choice, she ended up settling on Prague, which has become the region's main centre for business aviation.
Grossmann Jet Service had a tough time at the start.
"I set it up all by myself. I even lived in the office - I rented one room and paid for it. But after being so successful in business aviation in the past, I knew it would be a success," she says.
In her first year, the biggest challenge was simply explaining what her business was about to potential clients.
"I had to be like a teacher, to explain that it is not so expensive," she says. "The biggest difficulty was to convince them that this made economic sense. I do not want to be seen as a luxury product, because then the market is very limited, I wanted to tell them that this is a business tool."
Her first client was a travel agency, which needed to move executives quickly around the region.
One year later, her company had its first aircraft, a 13-passenger Embraer 135BJ Legacy owned by her business partner.
The most popular routes were to places difficult to reach from Prague without a stop-over, such as Ireland, Moscow and Iceland, as well as more exotic point-to-point destinations in Africa and Asia.
Grossmann Jet Service now has three of its own aircraft, and employs 30 people, 12 of them pilots. With chartering aircraft from other companies, she sometimes has six or seven aircraft in the air at one time. About a fifth of her clients are from the Czech Republic.
The company managed to survive the economic crisis, when its Russian business fell steeply.
"The Russian market died all of a sudden, and it is still dead," says Ms Grossmann, who relied on her consulting business, and on contacts with travel agents promoting quick getaways for wealthy clients to help her pull through.
In all, business declined by about 15 per cent, with revenues in 2009 of €10m ($13.4m), and a profit of €500,000. This year, Ms Grossmann has had to cut prices by about 11 per cent, partly because of increased competition.
"Reducing prices is against my philosophy, because it becomes hard to raise them," she says.
The overall business jet market in Europe took a hit last year, but is showing signs of recovery, says Gary Crichlow, senior analyst with Ascend, the aerospace consultancy.
"Indications are that European business aviation charter demand is currently well above 2009 levels, although given that 2009 was a very difficult period, we're not out of the woods," he says.
Other operators have followed in Ms Grossmann's footsteps, with NetJets Europe, the fractional ownership and jet rental company, arriving in the Czech capital last year.
"Prague for some reason is the main hub for business aviation," says Ms Grossmann, pointing out that Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is too close to Vienna to make sense as a hub, while business in Budapest has never really taken off. She is planning to base an aeroplane in Poland later this year, as she see great potential for the Polish market.
NetJets had 300 flights to Poland last year, while Spain, a country of similar size, had 6,500 and Germany had 8,000.
The Polish business jet market should grow because of the poor road links, says Aleksander Domradzki, head of Rain Maker, a Warsaw-based transport and logistics consultancy. "There is a lot of talk but not much action in the market at the moment, in part because it is still too expensive to fly into major Polish airports," he says.
Ms Grossmann also sees big potential in Romania and Bulgaria. But she has no plans to rival NetJets - she aims to stop at five aircraft, which will still allows her to retain a tight control over her business.
"I want to keep it at the current size - otherwise the spirit of serving the client gets lost," she says.
As an illustration she points out that during the recent ash-related shutdown of much of Europe's airspace, she had two employees working constantly with a single stranded client.
That, she says, would not have been possible in a larger company.
(Source: Financial Times,Tuesday, May 4 2010)
To read the interview at FT web, please follow the link bellow (free registration necessary)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5987338-5655-11df-b835-00144feab49a,dwp_uuid=d6334790-5646-11df-b835-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
