英国私人飞机租赁代理商Volanteus的首席执行官马克·格林已从业25年。他的职业生涯经历过两次重创——9/11和2008年金融危机,然而那些都不能和此次冠状病毒危机相提并论。
近期,《财富》杂志对格林进行了采访,内容涉及冠状病毒如何影响私人飞机租赁业务,该如何努力全新定位,以及如何在心理和财务上面对目前的新情况。
财富:自危机爆发以来,你们的业务发生了什么变化?
格林:业态几乎在一夜之间发生了变化。这很容易理解:过去租赁私人飞机的都是高净值个人,而商业飞机租赁针对的是像球迷这样人数更多的群体。而现在我们正在做的一切其实就是帮助遣返各个国家的公民。无论是飞回菲律宾的邮轮船员,还是从非洲或阿伯丁飞往伦敦的天然气工人。
甚至还包括度假出游的旅客。我们服务过马拉喀什高尔夫锦标赛的大约25名乘客。在马拉喀什机场他们的所有航班都被取消了,于是我们将他们送回英国。如果所有定期航班均被取消,我们所做的一切就是在各种数不胜数的情况下把这些人运送回国。
所以,可以说私人包机这个小众市场目前生意非常好吗?
我们的包机行业从短期来看表现要好得多。因为那些定期航班削减了许多航线,有些航空公司甚至完全停飞。我们因此有机会使用这些公司的飞机。
比如说,英国航空公司可能已经停飞了很多航班,但是英国的外交和联邦事务部一直在使用这些飞机遣返人员。我们的包机行业现在就能够充分利用这些多出来的运力。过去想要用上英国航空公司的飞机是很难的,可现在的机会要大得多。
中期前景如何?
短期来看,我们会非常忙。至于中期,我认为我们的工作节奏会放慢下来。医疗用品、药品和人道主义援助的飞行需求仍然会有,但会减少。业务还会在,但我认为将会有相当大的放缓。以我个人的观点,在情况好转以前,这种减缓将会持续两到三个月的时间。
我们是代理商,就是说我们会收取固定的佣金。我们发现有许多私人飞机公司知道将来的业务会放缓,就把现在的价格定得很高。因为他们意识到自己现在可以出售运力,但是可能两到三周以后就不行了。
他们仍然需要支付机组人员工资和飞机维护费用等等。政府不会救助他们。因此私人飞机的价格在过去几周内一直在上涨——但这就是正常状态。机票价格在夏季上涨;到了冬天,价格下降,他们就会跑来找我们。
当前的价格上涨是否与平时典型的季节性上涨一致?
大概会略高一点。平均而言,冬季一般会减少10%,夏季会增长10%。现在的情况,大概会比10%多一点。
你认为有钱人会因为定期航班的锐减而租用更多私人飞机吗?
可能是那么回事。这场危机确实带来了很多新业务。比如说,一家石油公司过去不会为二线或三线甚至是体力工人包租私人飞机的。而如今这些人无论如何要回家,所以他们包租了两次航班。
租用私人飞机将六、七个人送回家,你可以把这称为公司责任,或者员工责任。一个包机座位的费用可能是10000英镑(约合人民币87000元),但如果将员工留在那里要花多少钱呢?显而易见,如果一家公司花费60000英镑将六名工人从非洲带回英国,它必须拥有一定的经济实力。但这同时也是公司品格、常识和善意的表现。(财富中文网)
译者:晨曦
英国私人飞机租赁代理商Volanteus的首席执行官马克·格林已从业25年。他的职业生涯经历过两次重创——9/11和2008年金融危机,然而那些都不能和此次冠状病毒危机相提并论。
近期,《财富》杂志对格林进行了采访,内容涉及冠状病毒如何影响私人飞机租赁业务,该如何努力全新定位,以及如何在心理和财务上面对目前的新情况。
财富:自危机爆发以来,你们的业务发生了什么变化?
格林:业态几乎在一夜之间发生了变化。这很容易理解:过去租赁私人飞机的都是高净值个人,而商业飞机租赁针对的是像球迷这样人数更多的群体。而现在我们正在做的一切其实就是帮助遣返各个国家的公民。无论是飞回菲律宾的邮轮船员,还是从非洲或阿伯丁飞往伦敦的天然气工人。
甚至还包括度假出游的旅客。我们服务过马拉喀什高尔夫锦标赛的大约25名乘客。在马拉喀什机场他们的所有航班都被取消了,于是我们将他们送回英国。如果所有定期航班均被取消,我们所做的一切就是在各种数不胜数的情况下把这些人运送回国。
所以,可以说私人包机这个小众市场目前生意非常好吗?
我们的包机行业从短期来看表现要好得多。因为那些定期航班削减了许多航线,有些航空公司甚至完全停飞。我们因此有机会使用这些公司的飞机。
比如说,英国航空公司可能已经停飞了很多航班,但是英国的外交和联邦事务部一直在使用这些飞机遣返人员。我们的包机行业现在就能够充分利用这些多出来的运力。过去想要用上英国航空公司的飞机是很难的,可现在的机会要大得多。
中期前景如何?
短期来看,我们会非常忙。至于中期,我认为我们的工作节奏会放慢下来。医疗用品、药品和人道主义援助的飞行需求仍然会有,但会减少。业务还会在,但我认为将会有相当大的放缓。以我个人的观点,在情况好转以前,这种减缓将会持续两到三个月的时间。
我们是代理商,就是说我们会收取固定的佣金。我们发现有许多私人飞机公司知道将来的业务会放缓,就把现在的价格定得很高。因为他们意识到自己现在可以出售运力,但是可能两到三周以后就不行了。
他们仍然需要支付机组人员工资和飞机维护费用等等。政府不会救助他们。因此私人飞机的价格在过去几周内一直在上涨——但这就是正常状态。机票价格在夏季上涨;到了冬天,价格下降,他们就会跑来找我们。
当前的价格上涨是否与平时典型的季节性上涨一致?
大概会略高一点。平均而言,冬季一般会减少10%,夏季会增长10%。现在的情况,大概会比10%多一点。
你认为有钱人会因为定期航班的锐减而租用更多私人飞机吗?
可能是那么回事。这场危机确实带来了很多新业务。比如说,一家石油公司过去不会为二线或三线甚至是体力工人包租私人飞机的。而如今这些人无论如何要回家,所以他们包租了两次航班。
租用私人飞机将六、七个人送回家,你可以把这称为公司责任,或者员工责任。一个包机座位的费用可能是10000英镑(约合人民币87000元),但如果将员工留在那里要花多少钱呢?显而易见,如果一家公司花费60000英镑将六名工人从非洲带回英国,它必须拥有一定的经济实力。但这同时也是公司品格、常识和善意的表现。(财富中文网)
译者:晨曦
Mark Green, the CEO of British private-jet charter agent Volanteus, has been in the business for 25 years. During that time, he has experienced two significant dips—after 9/11 and during the 2008 financial crisis—but nothing like the coronavirus crisis.
Fortune spoke with Green for a new series, The Coronavirus Economy, to ask about how COVID-19 has affected his business, now completely reorienting its efforts, and to get a sense of how he has been handling this news, both emotionally and financially.
Fortune: What has changed in your business since the crisis struck?
Green: The dynamic changed almost overnight. Historically, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the private jet sector is used by high-net-worth individuals, and commercial jet chartering has historically been larger groups—such as football fans. [Now] everything we are doing, literally everything, is the repatriation of citizens of various nations going home, whether that be cruise ship staff flying home to the Philippines, or gas workers flying to London from Africa or Aberdeen.
Even leisure travelers—we had about 25 passengers at a golf tournament down in Marrakech. They had all their flights canceled at Marrakesh Airport. We repatriated them back to the U.K. All those scheduled flights were canceled. Everything we’re doing at the moment is repatriation, for a thousand different reasons.
So would you say your niche is doing well at the moment?
In the short term, our charter industry is doing a lot better because those scheduled services have curtailed a lot of their routes, and some airlines have even stopped flying entirely. We’re then able to step in and use those airlines’ [planes].
For example, British Airways may have stopped a lot of their flying, but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been using those airplanes to repatriate people. Our industry is able to utilize that spare capacity. Historically, British Airways tends not to have a great deal of availability, whereas now…the availability is much greater.
What is the outlook in the medium term?
In the short term, it is very busy. In the midterm, I think it will be able to slow down. There will still be a lesser need for medical supplies, pharma—humanitarian flying. That business is still going to be there, but I think there will be quite a dramatic slowdown. In my personal opinion, it will be two or three months before the slowdown begins to pick up again.
We’re an agent, which means we charge a fixed, commissionable rate. We are finding with a lot of the private jet companies, because they know it’s going to slow down, the aggregate price has risen considerably. They realized they can sell their aircraft [capacity] right now, but in two to three weeks probably not.
They still have crew to pay for, maintenance and so on. The government won’t be bailing them out. So the prices of the private jets have gone up over the last few weeks—but we see this all the time. In summertime, the prices go up; in winter the air companies are coming to us asking for business.
Are the current price rises in line with that typical seasonal bump?
Maybe a bit higher. On average, in winter it’s minus 10%, in summer plus 10%. Now it’s possible just a little over 10% [up].
Do you think you’ll see wealthy individuals hiring more private jets because regular services are grounded?
That could be a thing. There’s an awful lot of new business coming out of this crisis. For example, an oil company that historically wouldn’t charter a private jet for second-tier or third-tier or even menial workers—those people are struggling to get themselves home, so they charter a couple of flights.
You could call it corporate or certainly employee responsibility, chartering a private jet to ferry six or seven people home. It may be costing them 10,000 pounds [$12,230] a seat, but what’s it going to cost to keep them down there? Obviously a company spending 60,000 pounds on bringing six workers back from Africa to the U.K. has to have certain level of wealth, but it also shows character and common sense and goodwill.