Music tour air charter specialist Premier Aviation is to broaden its entertainment clientele in 2023. With live music events continuing to stage a significant comeback post pandemic, the latter half of 2022 saw the Hunt & Palmer Group company handle 30 band tours, and it is also moving into charters for the film sector. To this end the company attended the Pollstar Live! entertainment conference in Los Angeles that brings together tour managers, artist managers, promoters and agents. “Timing for this event is terrific,” says business development manager Paul Kindred. "The level of demand we are seeing, especially for Europe, North and South America music tours, is high.” Kindred returns to familiar territory at this conference, having joined Premier from the music industry where he worked with major record labels including Sony Music, Arista and A&M Records.

Premier also recently expanded its US team with the arrival of Krissy Kerwin as country manager. Detroit, Michigan-based, Kerwin brings nearly 20 years’ aviation experience in corporate flight departments, latterly with a US legacy airline. Working alongside UK-headquartered colleagues including chairman Jeremy Palmer, Kindred and broking manager Lizzy Templer, Kerwin made her debut with Premier at NBAA Schedulers and Dispatchers in Nashville, Tennessee.

With nearly 30 years of charter experience, Premier Aviation is well versed in designing bespoke itineraries for tour managers. Year on year, it facilitates many of the top grossing tours. Services include planning flight itineraries, determining best aircraft types, selecting charter airlines and private jet operator partners, as well as liaising with airports and trip planners for complex routings. It works with US and European charter airlines and business aviation providers.

European music tours typically peak in summer months through to October. The Middle East is prolific in winter months, and Premier is starting to log more requests for Saudi Arabia now the Kingdom is opening up. Southeast Asia is also a growing market.

“Charter enables flexibility, as well as the ability to use airports that don’t have scheduled services, often conveniently located as close as possible to a music venue. The time saving it affords enables artists and bands to fulfil gigs in a different city every other day, if not every day, which keeps fans happy. Private charter assures reliability and artists’ privacy, as well as providing precious time to relax between gigs,” Kindred adds. “We work hard as an integral partnership with tour managers to see every detail is covered. The appointment of Krissy, as a dedicated conduit for our US clients, is a good start to the year.”

With sustainability an ongoing focus for stakeholders across the aviation and music industry, some bands have become notably environmentally conscious. One global band Premier supported committed to refuelling with SAF where available during its 2022 world tour. In addition to reducing carbon emissions where possible, Premier offers a carbon offsetting programme with UK-based carbon balancing specialist C-Level. Its chosen beneficiary is the CommuniTree Carbon Project for reforestation in Nicaragua, South America, tackling both poverty and climate change. Premier will also provide carbon emission data at the end of each flight on request.