As travel restrictions and border closures continue to be a barrier to the aviation, Dominvs Aviation is continuing to drive its momentum in 2021 from its private aviation focussed multi divisions. The company has already closed their first aircraft sale of the year and remains positive on the existing aircraft they have under offer and in contract, with four additional jet sales underway taking the transaction value to in excess of $26 million along with a strong pipeline of sales and purchase enquiries.

Part of the Dominvs Group of companies, Dominvs Aviation, led by CEO Christopher Mace, is a thriving boutique aviation business managing sales, charter and operations revenues in excess of £25 million which provides high-net-worth clients with aviation asset management consultancy, private aircraft charter and private jet sales and acquisition services.

Dominvs Aviation, which both owns and manages a fleet of private jets and helicopters, also acts as a broker, enabling the business to provide clients with access to chartering thousands of high-quality private jets and helicopters for them to any location in the world.

During 2020 Dominvs Aviation observed that the first UK lockdown led to both the commercial and private jet markets initially dropping significantly for a two month period, however the private jet charter sector recovered quickly and by the end of 2020 in the UK, demand for private jets was back to 93% of normal levels, whilst commercial passenger flights were still down by 65%.

Last year’s results also demonstrated that the busiest months of 2020 were July and August for private jet charter, with the company managing some 200 hours of jet charter flight time across 120 individual flight sectors. The data also suggests that smaller airports in the UK such as Biggin Hill and Farnborough had the biggest surge in private jet charter flights.

Christopher Mace, CEO of Dominvs Aviation says: “Despite the current travel restrictions in place across the globe we are finding that there is a positivity for a return to travel for both business and pleasure as soon as we are able. Dominvs Aviation believe that the sector will rise by 20% in the second half of 2021 as constantly changing travel restrictions are making business and first class passengers turn to private jet charter to ensure more reliable solutions for their business and leisure journeys. With this forward demand we are also seeing new aircraft buyers who are looking to ensure they have a guaranteed option for future safe and efficient travel, especially with the vast reduction in airlines scheduled service coverage.”

While 2020 brought upon its own set of challenges to the aviation industry, Dominvs Aviation was able to achieve positive results by successfully converting the greater demand for private jet charter by delivering a highly efficient, elevated and personalised service for their loyal base of clients.  Last year, Dominvs Aviation handled, £2.9 million worth of charter business, which consisted of £1.5 million of brokered jets and helicopters and £1.4 million of aircraft charter revenue managed through its own aircraft fleet partnerships.

In 2020 Dominvs Aviation clients typically spent £13,000 per trip chartering a private jet within Europe with £30,000 per trip spent on longer business charter flights, £15,000 per trip on leisure flights and £7,000 per trip on domestic short-haul flights.

Throughout 2020, private jet charter was mainly around the Mediterranean with the top most popular destinations being Nice, Cannes, Palma and Majorca during the summer months, moving further afield to Greece, Cyprus and Egypt when restrictions were in place around the Mediterranean towards the end of the summer. During the winter months, Dubai, the Maldives and the Caribbean were the most popular destinations with clients expressing interest in Dominvs Aviation’s strategic brand partnerships including the exclusive Nautilus Group resort in the Maldives.

With travel restrictions currently in place across Europe, Dominvs Aviation has reached out in providing charter solutions in India, USA and the Caribbean so far in Q1 2021. When restrictions do lift in Europe, Dominvs Aviation forecast that the South of France, Spain and Portugal will be the most popular locations for private jet charter flights for tourism purposes, with the United States being one of the top business locations outside Europe.

Melanie Blackman, Head of Charter at Dominvs Aviation says: “The advantage of having a smaller fleet of aircraft under our direct management, along with strong connections with operating partners across the globe, allows us to always provided safe, value driven solutions to match a range of client needs from repatriation, urgent business travel to safely bringing families together at a time when commercial aviation is not as readily available.”

Seeing the opportunity to strengthen the company’s global position and to ensure the company remains closer to their clients than ever before, Dominvs Aviation also recruited Surya Singh, Head of Client Development, who brings prior aviation experience from his time at VistaJet. This expansion of the team has not only strengthened momentum for the year ahead, but has also led to the development of the acquisitions advisory channel, allowing the company to offer tailor made aircraft purchase solutions delivering true value for their client’s needs as they source, negotiate and manage the flight profile for their client.

Worldwide aircraft values were down from 2019 by around 20% for pre-owned, although transactions were 15% greater in 2020 compared to 2019, with the biggest and most significant increase the industry has seen was in Q4 of 2020 as many buyers in the US tried to pre-empt possible tax changes driven by the leadership change in the Whitehouse.