Luxaviation CEO Sees Deficiencies in Seemingly Buoyant Market

Luxaviation CEO Patrick Hansen is predicting a strong and buoyant business aviation market in 2023, despite the fact that growing costs are bringing low margins to the sector.

“I’m sure that for the next six to twelve months, people will continue to live on the buoyancy and the structural issue of the market,” said Hansen, adding that people are living in a certain time when they don’t see the deficiencies.

The major deficiency, he says, are the extremely low profit margins due to increasing costs and regulatory issues, which have been witnessed across all regions.

However, he believes that governments should fact-check growth numbers and messages of growth and buoyancy, which might not be true and mislead investors.

“Over the last two years, a lot of people are living off announcements of significant growth. It was very easy to grow very much when there was little activity in 2020,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of extremely buoyant messages coming out from various industry players. I think there should be reality checks behind it when it comes to the true numbers.”

“For the business aviation market in general, 2022 was a good year except for the last two months where you could see a slowdown. Some business owners might see their business in a much better light than what it actually is.”

Since it was founded in 2008, Luxaviation has made major acquisitions including Fairjets, Abelag, Unijet, and ExecuJet, and has expanded its FBO networks in Germany, the US, and Australia. In 2021, the Luxembourg-based company announced a partnership with Lilium for future operations of its seven-seat Lilium Jet.

Looking into the future, Hansen said the company will continue its path of growth and expand its FBO network in New Zealand as well as the US market although COVID-19 has slowed the company’s business and expansion process over the past few years.

Talking about the company’s thoughts on the emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) industry and the billions of dollars that have been invested in it, Hansen said it is only a matter of time for commercial air taxis to become a reality.

“I’m a firm believer that sooner or later AAM will become a reality.”