Billund, Denmark-based Global Reach Aviation says that a busy summer period has extended into the autumn, with plenty of activity in September and October so far. “When the new year came around we were still under lockdown around the world,” states press officer Ulrika Bjerregaard. “Earlier in 2020 we had not anticipated that the pandemic would draw out for such a long time. Optimistically we thought that by March 2021 we would have rehired all our employees and things would be back to normal. It wasn’t until April 2021 that the lockdown was lifted little by little, and then we still had to wait and see when the travel market would start up again. People were hesitant to travel to say the least.

“What we hoped for was that the year or the summer season would be extended into the autumn due to the spring lockdown. August, September and October have been very busy. People are eager to fly and have been looking forward to travelling again. We are now looking into the traditional low season over winter but hope that this excitement over being able to travel will last over the winter.”

Bjerregaard says that a ‘will to get through’ has stood the company in good stead. “When the first lockdown hit us and it was apparent that no one was going to fly for a very long time, we had to take hard measures. We had to let go of most of our employees. Everyone was offered the opportunity to continue on freelance contracts when we restored the company and were promised that they would be the first ones to be offered positions when we could hire again. We contacted all creditors and made individual agreements that were hopefully beneficial to both sides. Our leasing company has been phenomenal and showed us trust through the hardest period of the company’s lifetime. Those were measures all companies in crisis would take.”

Global Reach sat down and discussed how it could act on a strategic level, contacting new potential customers even though it knew they weren’t going to need the operator for some time. The organisation kept up its strong social media presence, which meant it didn’t disappear from the aviation landscape. “We kept in contact with other aviation companies in the industry,” Bjerregaard continues. “And last but not least we kept believing and telling each other daily that we would get through.”

She hopes that the winter season won’t be as low as during normal years. “We have rehired most of our employees but in 2022 we hope to be able to bring back the rest. Soon we will start our strategy planning for 2022-2024; hopefully it will be easier to plan 2022, but let’s see. Many countries are not through the pandemic and we have a long winter season ahead of us.”

Global Reach operates a 48 seater CRJ-200 and an 86 seater CRJ-900. “One is fortunately not more popular than the other since they serve two different segments. This was the plan all along; to be able to attract larger VIP groups with the latest addition, the CRJ-900. Our market is ad hoc private jet for larger groups such as sports teams, companies, military and music bands,” Bjerregaard concludes.