Charter biz offers high profits

Private charters may sound like an expensive option, but it is not an unprofitable one. In fact, offering private charters to travellers is a more bankable option for tour operators and travel agents. Here’s a quick guide on how to make this a profitable choice.

In a country like India, which is so diversified in its culture and heritage, anyone travelling in this part of the world couldn’t feel anything short of extremely mesmerised. At the same time, due to shortage of time and poor infrastructure, most of the high-end travellers prefer to hire a private jet to experience the length and breadth of our country.

It is quite surprising that a large segment of travel agencies and tour operators shy away from offering private jet services to these travellers. They would be surprised that aircraft charter services have a high profit margin compared to any other service they offer to their clients.

Some of the strategies they can use to increase their business through charter flights are:

• Identify target markets: Determine customer segments who are most likely to be interested in charter flights. This could include luxury travellers, corporate groups, sports teams, and wedding groups.
• Offer customised itineraries: Create tailor-made packages that cater to the specific needs and preferences of your target segments. It is important to highlight benefits like flexibility and direct connectivity to their destinations, time efficiency, privacy and comfort, that charter flights offer compared to commercial flights.
• Strategic collaboration with partners: Get into a formal contract or partnership with hotels, resorts, and other relevant businesses to create comprehensive travel packages that include both transportation and accommodations.
• Social media and product marketing: Use strategies like email marketing, social media campaign and online advertising to reach your target audience at a much faster pace.
• Leverage customer testimonials: Using customer testimonials is a huge weapon to convince other potential flyers to use private charter services. Travel agencies and tour operators must investigate this strategy to grasp a large chunk of High Networth Individuals (HNIs) business through their foreign agents.
• Competitive pricing: It has been seen that high-end customers do not mind paying a premium price for flying private jet till the time they have been clearly communicated the added value they receive for the price. These guests expect a transparent transaction with their suppliers.