Wendy Courtenay, International Air Charter

Release Date: 2009-10-19

Wendy Courtenay, Business Development Director of International Air Charter, was interviewed by RussianAvia, sharing her optimism for gaining a stand on the Russian business aviation market

What makes you more competitive than other international players on the Russian business aviation market?

We have a very good understanding of the Russian market; we have Russian-speaking staff and a far-reaching system… It’s a unique system using which we can pinpoint all the available aircrafts around the world for charter, including aircrafts that are away from their base. In this way, we can save the clients very costly positioning and the client can benefit from having an aircraft from the point where he wants to depart. So, we search the market to see what we have on the ground to save positioning costs. For example, if we have an aircraft, which is coming from London and sitting in Moscow for one week before return, we can utilise that aircraft.

You already have offices in many different countries all over the world… Do you have plans to further expand your business, and, if so, in which direction will such development go?

I think that at the moment we have a very wide coverage with all the offices that we have and with the communications we have, so I don’t think we need to have offices in every country to be able to serve there. However, with the growing client base that we are experiencing in the Russian market, we would definitely like to expand our business opportunities here.

What can you say about your position in the Russian market nowadays?

Our position in the Russian market is in its early days. First of all, we expanded in the Middle East, we’ve stayed there for 8 years; for us it’s a big growth area and we are acknowledged to be the biggest broker in the Middle East. So now we are trying to adopt the same strategy by employing experienced people and growing our business in here with staff who understand the Russian market very well, and I think it’s very important to do this to catch a stronger position in the Russian market and you cant do that without being strongly represented here.

So, do you have the potential to penetrate this already well-packed market?

I really do believe so. We have always been, since our beginnings some 20 years ago, concentrating our efforts on the executive and VIP market. We don’t want to diversify into large commercial aircrafts, we don’t want to be involved with cargo, we don’t want to be involved with managing aircraft… we do have possibilities for this, of course, we can refer a client who would like to buy an aircraft, but they won’t do it through our company. Our company solely concentrates on the private aviation charter market, we know all aircrafts that are available for worldwide charter, we offer the latest, most modern aircrafts, most of our aircrafts are less than 5 years old because our clients demand that. Our experience in the Middle East taught us what royal families expect and as we fly all these very high rank individuals who are very demanding. I think we can translate this experience into the market here in Russia.

What are your expectations from this year’s exhibition?

I have made some extremely good contacts through visiting Jet Expo. Last year there were more exhibitors but this year I’ve made many good contacts with additional services like handling, ground transportation, catering companies, so all very very good to know!

Thank you so much for talking to us!

Company:	International Air Charter
Position:	Business Development Director
Country:	United Kingdom