JUSTIN WASTNAGE / TURIN
Alberto Nathansohn stresses he has nothing against pilots per se: "They are excellent people, but a businessman is a businessman and a pilot is a pilot."
Nathansohn is the managing director of Turin Citti… di Torino airport-based Eurofly Service, the largest business aircraft operator in Italy. "We pride ourselves in being the only corporate aviation company in Italy to have neither chief executive nor managing director with a pilot's licence," he says.
After Eurofly Service split from its poorly performing package tour arm (now Eurofly, part of the Alitalia group) in July 2000, Nathansohn says the strategy team focused on a "rich seam" of large but little-known family-owned businesses, many of which fly between their north-western headquarters and production facilities in the poorer south.
In the new Italian business climate, in-house flight departments are seen as inefficient. Eurofly Services has seen bookings for its Dassault Falcon large-cabin business jets, the bulk of its fleet, almost double in the first six months of this year compared with 2001 - although, like other operators, its light jet market fell by around half over the same period. Nathansohn says its gamble has paid off, as the larger companies are not only using bigger aircraft, but also using them more: total flight hours are up 11% so far on last year. He expects this to continue: "We are one of few to have a large fleet of large cabin jets and we will exploit this point of strength. We won't abandon light jets, but until the recovery, that market will stagnate at best."
Business and general aviation has a poor reputation for safety in Italy at present, with three crashes near Milan in the last two years, Nathansohn says. But he believes that the resulting safety measures will push even more small operators out of the market and strengthen the case for companies to outsource their flights. "There is always room for those with more oxygen to acquire those left gasping," he adds.
Source: Flight International
