David Marcus is an accountant who loves flying, making him the perfect chief operating officer for Europe’s largest fractional service provider.
Q: Your flying experience ranges from light aircraft to corporate and commercial jets. You still fly as a Dassault Falcon 2000 captain for NetJets Europe (NJE) – how does this help your role as COO?A: I really enjoy both aspects. I fly for four days a month and I really see the company from an operational perspective. I see everything from the flightdeck, to the interiors to ground-handling systems. I have made operational changes as a result. It feels like I’m in a fantastic theatre watching it all. On one flight our crew had sourced an 85-year-old bottle of port – one of only three remaining in the world - for a man celebrating his 85th birthday. He was delighted.
Q: Europe is a diverse market – in France, for example, you sell more aircraft to high net-worth individuals than you do to companies. How do you promote NJE to such a varied audience?
A: The need for aircraft is narrower than you imagine - 70% of demand is for business. The main desire is for more time, so we provide time machines.
Q: How do you cope with the logistics problems posed by operating 80 aircraft of eight different types for 600 owners across Europe?
A: It’s a question of scaleable management systems. We insist that everything is safe and legal and to do that we ensure our systems are highly scaleable.
Q: Why did NJE launch in Scotland in the UK? And where do you intend to go next?
A: There were a surprising number of people traveling there, so we went there. You can say this is the beginning of a trend; we will do the same thing elsewhere. We’re looking at eastern Europe, Russia and the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
Q: How is the tie-in with Lufthansa working?
A: It has exceeded all our expectations. We’re talking major multiples of what we had predicted. We are obsessed with service, it is non-negotiable.
Q: NJE said this year that it “plans on being a very big business” and you talk of being an “airline”’ in your literature. At what point did you become an airline?
A: We are a fractional service provider, but we are an airline in terms of what happens on the flightdeck. Business aviation crew standards are variable. There is nowhere near the same standardization for corporate aircrew training as there is on airlines. We insist on training our crew to the same level as airline standards. We have a powerful culture of safety - it is our core philosophy - so we are an airline in the cockpit.
Source: Flight Daily News
