As travel restrictions and border closures continue to be a barrier to aviation, Dominvs Aviation is looking to continue its momentum. The company has already closed its first aircraft sale of the year and remains positive about the existing aircraft it has under offer and in contract, with four additional jet sales under way, taking the transaction value to in excess of $26 million along with a strong pipeline of sales and purchase enquiries.

Part of the Dominvs Group of companies, Dominvs Aviation, led by CEO Christopher Mace, is a UK boutique aviation business managing sales, charter and operations revenues in excess of GBP25 million that provides high-net-worth clients with aviation asset management consultancy, private aircraft charter and private jet sales and acquisition services.

Dominvs both owns and manages a fleet of private jets and helicopters and also acts as a broker, enabling the business to provide clients with access to thousands of high-quality private jets and helicopters for them to charter in any location in the world.

During 2020, Dominvs observed that the first UK lockdown led to both the commercial and private jet markets initially dropping significantly for a two month period. However the private jet charter sector recovered quickly and by the end of 2020 in the UK demand for private jets was back to 93 per cent of normal levels, while commercial passenger flights were still down by 65 per cent.

Last year's results also demonstrated that the busiest months of 2020 for private jet charter were July and August, with the company managing some 200 hours of jet charter flight time across 120 individual sectors. The data also suggests that smaller airports in the UK, such as Biggin Hill and Farnborough, had the biggest surge in private jet charter flights.

CEO Christopher Mace says: “Despite the current travel restrictions in place across the globe, we are finding that there is a positivity for a return to travel for both business and pleasure as soon as we are able. Dominvs Aviation believes that the sector will rise by 20 per cent in the second half of 2021 as constantly changing travel restrictions are making business and first class passengers turn to private jet charter to ensure more reliable solutions for their business and leisure journeys. With this forward demand we are also seeing new aircraft buyers who are looking to ensure they have a guaranteed option for future safe and efficient travel, especially with the vast reduction in airlines scheduled service coverage.”

While 2020 brought its own set of challenges to the aviation industry, Dominvs was able to achieve positive results by successfully converting the greater demand for private jet charter by delivering an efficient, elevated and personalised service for its loyal base of clients. Last year, the company handled GBP2.9 million worth of charter business, which consisted of GBP1.5 million of brokered jets and helicopters and GBP1.4 million of aircraft charter revenue managed through its own aircraft fleet partnerships.

In 2020, Dominvs Aviation clients typically spent GBP13,000 per trip chartering a private jet within Europe with GBP30,000 per trip spent on longer business charter flights, GBP15,000 per trip on leisure flights and GBP7,000 per trip on domestic short-haul flights.

Throughout 2020, private jet charter was mainly around the Mediterranean, with the most popular destinations being Nice, Cannes, Palma and Majorca during the summer months, then moving further afield to Greece, Cyprus and Egypt when restrictions were in place around the Mediterranean towards the end of the summer. During the winter months, Dubai, the Maldives and the Caribbean were the most popular destinations with clients expressing interest in Dominvs Aviation's strategic brand partnerships including with the exclusive Nautilus Group resort in the Maldives.

With travel restrictions currently in place across Europe, Dominvs Aviation has reached out in providing charter solutions in India, USA and the Caribbean so far in Q1 2021. When restrictions do lift in Europe Dominvs Aviation forecasts that the south of France, Spain and Portugal will be the most popular locations for private jet charter flights for tourism purposes, with the United States being one of the top business locations outside Europe.

Head of charter Melanie Blackman states: “Having a smaller fleet of aircraft under our direct management, along with strong connections with operating partners across the globe, allows us to always provide safe, value driven solutions to match a range of client needs from repatriation and urgent business travel to safely bringing families together at a time when commercial aviation is not as readily available.”

Seeing the opportunity to strengthen the company's global position and to ensure it remains closer to its clients than ever before, Dominvs Aviation also recruited Surya Singh as head of client development at the end of last year, who brings prior aviation experience from his time at VistaJet. This expansion of the team has not only strengthened momentum for the year ahead, but has also led to the development of the acquisitions advisory channel, allowing the company to offer tailor made aircraft purchase solutions that deliver true value for its clients' needs as it sources, negotiates and manages the flight profile for its clients.

Worldwide aircraft values were down from 2019 by around 20% for pre-owned, although transactions were 15% greater in 2020 compared to 2019, with the biggest and most significant increase the industry has seen was in Q4 of 2020 as many buyers in the US tried to pre-empt possible tax changes driven by the leadership change in the Whitehouse.