How would you describe Jet Scout?
It goes beyond the usual online charter sales platforms. There are two levels, the public platform, which is the ‘passive’ form, where customers (business jet travelers, brokers and other operators) can request flights and only operators can respond, controlled by algorithms.
With the more advanced level, the white label, the profiles can be customized, taking into account only specific routes or airports, and so on. The main point of it is that it is instant, generating a preliminary quote automatically. If you’re an operator, you don’t have to call the customer back, work out a price, and so on. It’s cutting down on a lot of unnecessary work, simplifying the process.
The initial inquiry shall be posted on your dedicated website environment. In other words, by implementing the Jet Scout engine as a plug-in it will save up to 90% of the initial workload. How does this work? Motivate your clients to register on your dedicated ‘charter sales platform’ and let all kinds of clients submit their inquiries.
Quotes will be based on information the operator has given, then?
You use the system to manage the operations of your business, so if a customer enquires about a flight you don’t have to go away and check availability, handling fees for the airports you are flying to, catering, and so on. Your running costs are considered if properly defined. It’s a streamlined system based on facts and figures. If you can handle the customer’s request, you will be notified while the customer gets an instant quote.
How did you see the need for something like this?
Look at the way the industry works now. Companies require, during high seasons, to reply to a couple of hundred inquiries a day – by mail or on the phone in order to sell just a few flights. If you don’t have the right kind of tool, you’re just drowning in endless admin and call backs. And it’s not good enough to be telling people you need to get back to them. It’s time to do something.
Presumably the customer is going to receive quotes from more than one company…
This applies to the public platform. Exactly – so they get the choice. The operators don’t see the other quotes that are being sent out. Customers just pay for the one they want, also via the system. But it’s good as the operators can find new clients this way. And if for some reason they can’t deliver on the flight, they can go to the system and make their own request – becoming a broker.
How do you make money? Do people pay to use Jet Scout?
It’s free to the business jet customer, and free for the operators during our trial period. Going forward, on the basic level we have a license fee, which is a percentage of the flight sold. So only the operator pays the fees. For the more advanced white label, there are a few different pricing structures as you can customize what you need.
When is it launched?
We officially launched it at MEBAA in Dubai last December. It’s had good feedback so far, and we launched it with 24/7 support and video tutorials to help familiarize people with it. There is more to come, as our connectivity has just begun.
More info at www.jetscout.biz
