Rani Awad

ROBERT MOLSBERGEN| INTERVIEW
The logistics of running an aircraft management
business on this scale are huge. “Our world
would not exist without the help and support of
our vendor network. This has traditionally been
very strong. We have great relationships out there
with a wide spectrum of vendors and because of
our scale we have tremendous buying power. This
enables us to leverage excellent prices for our owners.
On top of this we have a pretty unique management
model. The aircraft owner only pays the
management fee, all the savings we negotiate are
passed straight back to the owner. That is part of
the value add that we bring,” he notes.
“People will typically say that we are more
expensive than other management companies.
But if you look at what owners pay in a year in
terms of all the additional costs with some other
management companies, and contrast that total
fi gure with the savings that we fi nd in fuel purchases,
maintenance and so on, our prices look
pretty competitive,” Molsbergen adds.
Building on its strength in the US, EJM has
turned its attention over the last few years to
Europe and China. The China project has gone
quiet given the chilling effect of the country’s
anti-corruption crackdown, which has made people
reluctant to be seen to be purchasing private
jets. However, the European project is very much
on track and EJM has added to its European
sales team in recent months. “It is early days for
our new sales people. It takes some six to eight
months for new sales people to start to be effective
in our market, so we look for that to bear
fruit shortly,” he comments.
Currently, EJM has 10 aircraft under management
in Europe. This has been achieved from a
base of zero in 2014, and Molsbergen’s goal for
EJM in Europe is to push that number up to 12
by December, which, he notes, looks on the cards.
EJM benefi ts substantially from being part
of NetJets and the European operational team
work very closely with their NetJets colleagues.
This helps enormously when it comes to dealing
with the various country-specifi c differences and
variations. It also means that EJM has a valuable
prospective client pool, comprising people who
start with fractional ownership and ultimately
want to upgrade to own their own jet.
Since the new buyer already knows NetJets
there is an established relationship and level of
trust that tends to point them in EJM’s direction
when they start looking for an aircraft management
company to take care of their new jet.
“A lot of the new business opportunities we get
are not generated by marketing events. They are
very much the product of word of mouth. Our partner
relationships are key here, and these partners
comprise aviation attorneys, banks and aircraft
financing companies and of course referrals from
our pilots, who are at the sharp end of dealing
with owners and operators,” he comments.
Molsbergen points out that EJM’s partners,
crew and maintenance technicians are all in effect
sales people for the company. “We have about
600 crew spread all across the US, and they are
excellent ambassadors for EJM,” he notes.
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Autumn 2015 | International 69