Overcoming the global pandemic in the aviation industry & the success of Jet Story

Resulting from the policies to slow down the pandemic in 2020, we saw a stoppage in many industries, especially in commercial flights, hotels, and tourism around the world. The effects of the pandemic are most evident in the airline industry, where restrictions from lockdowns of entire countries caused major disruption of flights.

In such times, we also observe who is more resilient in the sector. One of the major leaders of the business charter in Central and Eastern Europe is the carrier Jet Story (https://jetstory.com/).

Competing in such a highly competitive industry of private jet travel, Jet Story from its humble beginnings has strived to provide round-the-clock service to satisfy customers that demand excellence and personalized on-demand travel solutions.

In the beginning

The company was founded in 2006 with a few pilots and aircraft and has since grown to include a fleet of aircraft and many crew members. In managing the fleet and crews, the company has several levels of management such as; managing aircraft completely on behalf of owners, some which are rented to other customers and in some instances only managing in part. Such flexibility to manage such complexity and demand can be only attributed to long-time partnerships within the tight-knit aviation industry.

Strategic Partnerships

The industry is compact, and people tend to know all the players within a given region. In such an environment, the competition is high, and it is important to work to the best of your ability in one’s niche. So here critical partnership must be nurtured by partnering with various vendors from operations at airports to aviation scheduling software like Leon, which is a cloud-based scheduling software for keeping track of all schedule & crew.

There are several reasons Jet Story has come to rely on Leon for its expertise. Paweł Kruk, the CEO of Leon Software, explains: “Jet Story is one of our oldest customers. They have been using Leon Software for over 13 years. During those 13 years, we have been growing together and continuously improving our software to match the increasing scale of their operation. Jet Story trusted us from the beginning which allowed us to gradually build our confidence and presence on the European market.”

“Jet Story trusted us from the beginning which allowed us to gradually build our confidence and presence on the European market.”

Pawe Kruk, CEO, LEON SOFTWARE

Leon provides the toolset which includes modules for managing crew schedules, technical operations, and financials. Solutions for managing crew include planning schedules for pilots, cabin crews, and technical teams. According to Kamil Stępień, Deputy Flight Operations Postholder at Jet Story, a key component of the software is the handling of crew schedules that takes into account training needed, hours worked, mandatory rest periods, availability, and more.

Additionally, more complexity is added to the data as information needs to be stored on the whole operation from the first second the flight is booked to the end of the journey. Information such as catering details, handling requests, maintenance of aircraft, ordering of fuel, quoting of flights, and others are all saved in the system which is immediately accessible to all relevant personnel. Another key feature of Leon Software is that it has a high capability to integrate with other systems such as accounting, booking, and technical software of various kinds.

The global pandemic vs aviation industry

Kamil Stępień explains. “There is a lot of uncertainty in the industry right now. Planned seasonal work in the airline industry is up-in-the-air with long haul aircraft that are no longer flying passengers in peak seasons as in the previous years. As lockdowns started to be eased in Europe, mainly smaller aircraft started flying first. Since the pandemic is not over, we see more disruptions as some countries ease restrictions, others impose new ones and others even re-impose previous ones. As Europe eased the movement of people; the United States stopped flights from Europe. At the same time, China remained closed while Russia only started closing down. “

The airline industry took a hit, as long haul planes simply stopped flying because there were no destinations to fly people to. While for some customers that wanted to fly, smaller operators with small planes filled the gap, especially as restrictions were started getting eased. But challenges remained as aircraft and crew were not allowed for normal lay-over. In China, for example, it is only allowed to land for short rotation which means that the crew must be stretched so that they can do both in and out legs. This puts the planners and crew at the absolute limit. In some instances, only customers and crew that were nationals at the destination were allowed to disembark.

Planning to succeed

Kamil Stępień explains: “Some clients have stopped flying in the current circumstances, while others are willing to fly since they are citizens of the world. They have businesses, homes, family, and friends all over the world. They simply have to travel to destinations around the world. Some are even citizens of several countries. This helps to complete flights as the harshest restrictions still enable some movement of people especially residents of given countries. Additionally, since they own their own aircraft, they can plan where it is possible to fly and this gives them the freedom to fly if needed.”

“Some clients have stopped flying in the current circumstances, while others are willing to fly since they are citizens of the world. They have businesses, homes, family, and friends all over the world“.

Kamil Stępień, Deputy Flight Operations Postholder, Jet Story

During the pandemic, it is difficult to plan since restrictions and lockdowns disrupt the value chain. To overcome these challenges, one needs to use reliable partners on the ground to manage flight permissions and get customers to their destination on time. Being very flexible as a company, the speed of organizing flights in the market right now is key to customer satisfaction and something Jet Story does well.

The future is flying

Still even in this uncertain time you need to continue to innovate since that gives you a boost to your crew’s morale and something brand-new for your customers. For instance, continuously adding brand new aircraft to your fleet lets you provide more comfort and luxury to your customers. Jet Story loves to innovate in business aviation by taking into account customer needs from catering to the needs of the passengers, to managing aircraft efficiently for owners.

The future is bright for companies that are very flexible and can figure out ways to do business in the current circumstances. Being flexible in the continuously changing world of procedures - the focus is always on customer satisfaction. The ability to manage aircraft and routes to continue with flights with the least amount of interruption is challenging and rewarding at the same time.