Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Okay, so we were talking about this is, we're calling this overtime of the VIP seat today, 'cause I think the topic is amazing, and if people wanna hang around and listen to something else, they can. 0:18 So I did an empty leg video years ago during COVID when all of our companies were shut down. We're just sitting at home doing nothing, and I'm a type A person that can't sit at home and do nothing. 0:28 I made an empty leg, uh, private jet video on YouTube that's gotten tens of thousands of views, much to my surprise, thinking this silly little two-minute video was ever gonna do anything. 0:38 And then Sean starts telling me why that's happening. [laughs] Yeah. You said the magic words, right? Empty leg flights. Highest searched keyword Google PPC, right? 0:49 And once you figure that out in our space, you just start putting it everywhere. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. As one does when they have an SEO strategy. 0:56 So you put private jet charter, private jet flights, empty leg flights, and then you start to attract the typical traffic that you would in our space. 1:04 Um, so that's-- it's, I hate using the term, but like a hack to getting, you know, uh, in the right sort of fire hose of traffic that you wanna be in on the digital end. 1:14 But let's talk about empty legs for a second, Jessie, because- Let's do that... they, people don't understand why, why empty legs are helpful and useful when you're running a 135 or whether you're a charter broker. 1:26 So I'm gonna dispel a big myth. 1:28 If you think, if you're an operator or you're a charter broker, and you think that empty legs are gonna be something that you can just sell like hotcakes, and you'll, you, you know, you'll find all the people, you'll build it, and they will come in the beautiful style of field and dreams, I hate to burst your bubble, but that's not what they're useful for. 1:47 In fact, 1:48 through using the FlyEasy tools that we've built over time and launching them on customer websites, 135 operators, a bunch of charter brokers, you know, we learned, because we believed the same thing in the past, and I sincerely did too, but I learned that having the ability to show live inventory on your website through any digital medium and having customers engage, so, you know, anonymous visitors, web traffic, you name it, right? 2:14 Whoever it is, engaging with live inventory. So you've done a bunch of things. You've, you've, A, shown signs of, signs of life. You've shown that, you know, these are my airplanes. They're flying. 2:26 These are the deadheads against the fleet. Yeah. Right? So I'm, I'm actually a real business, right? 2:31 [laughs] Um, they get to look at where you're flying because effectively deadheads are like the antithesis of the originating charter booking. So all this really cool information, and it creates engagement. 2:43 And what ends up happening is I heard-- I've had a lot of 135 operators that were running these tools call me and say, "Sean, you know what? We love your empty leg tool because..." 2:54 And, and here I'm thinking, you know, when I was naive that they'd say, "Oh, we sold a bunch of empty legs, and we made a ton of money." No. In fact, they call and say, "Oh, you know what? 3:03 We just got a new jet card customer. We just had a customer, uh, put money on account with us because he was happy to work with us, and he's happy to see inventory that matches his needs," etc., etc. Mm. Mm-hmm. 3:14 The reality about empty legs is it's an excellent, it's a, it's an industry phenomenon that's, it's just an artifact of our industry- Mm-hmm... and the way we fly. 3:23 It's gonna be 30% or more, give or take, and it's always gonna be there. Use it. Leverage it and say to the customers, "Hey, I'm a running operation. These airplanes are flying." 3:33 They're effectively the standby of private aviation. Yeah. And so every now and then, the stars may align, and you'll have a retail customer that'll say, "Oh, I'm going there anyways. Maybe that'll work." 3:44 And they'll hop on the empty leg, and you'll be able to sell one. But the reality is it's a great marketing hook- Mm-hmm... to be able to reel in those customers, and it's a great piece of loyalty, right? 3:55 So I'm an existing customer, and I'm loyal to your 135 operation. It's really cool that you're gonna be able to show me, hey, these are where the airplanes are flying. Right. 4:03 Which is effectively showing me deadhead legs and giving me the opportunity or at least the perceived opportunity that I can participate in that in some way, shape, or form. 4:11 It creates that, that link that I would otherwise not have with you as an operator, with your brand- Mm-hmm... and with your company. And that's why it's so incredibly powerful. So don't- Oh, it's so-... 4:22 try to sell a bunch of empty legs. Leverage them to be able to sell your core value and your, what your core business is, which is selling charter. 4:31 But I think try to sell them because that is the whole, you know, in the process, you know, you're really, you're doing all these things and, like, I mean, I can tell you from experience, we used to send out emails as a company, and it was, "Oh, go fly to, uh, this beautiful luxurious destination next week." 4:45 Or, "Oh, we're having this great event in two months." Those emails just the open rate was terrible. People didn't really click through. They weren't engaged. It wasn't interesting. 4:54 But the second you start sending out empty legs, especially if you can specifically send the empties that that person would be interested in from their home airport or from the places that they like to go to and from, you've just really customized content for an individual, and that's incredible. 5:09 I mean, that's a personalized marketing experience. But yeah, I-- how many we actually sold of those? Very, very small number. It would work. So, you know, sometimes customers would get a great deal on a flight. 5:21 Um, a lot of times our employees would love to take those empty legs [laughs] when they're available. Um, so good employee benefit- Right... if you can do it. But, oh, yeah, I, I totally resonate with that. Um, it's... 5:32 But anyone- Yeah... trying to aggregate all these things into filling every empty leg, I think is maybe a pie in the sky idea. It's a noble pursuit, let's just put it that way, right? [laughs] Noble. 5:42 And if, and if you can make it work, then great. 5:45 But I think the, the key to any of that is really you ha- first you have to have a really high quality list of customers, which is very difficult to come by, and then you have to be able to really target and segment those customers by location, by needs, typically what they would fly on, right? 6:03 And in having engaged with some retail customers as well, you know, some customers look at deadhead legs for their pleasure travel, right? 6:11 So they may be jet card holders, and they may be fractional customers, and they look at the deadheads as, "Well, I'm gonna go down to the south, you know, at St. 6:18 Martin-"You know, between this day and this day, I like to look at empty legs. 6:23 Plus I feel, I feel good about myself because I'm not booking a full charter trip and I'm just, you know, I'm hopping on an empty leg and being, I guess you could say it's environmentally conscious. 6:33 [laughs] But- It's flying anyway. But yeah, so keywords, keywords, keywords. Mm. It's all about search engine optimization, and it's also from a digital medium standpoint. 6:43 But, you know, these-- what we, we sit-- You know, I find it really interesting 'cause 135 operators really sit on a gold mine that they haven't yet mined- Mm... 6:54 to some extent, and empty legs is just one piece of it, right? I like to always use the Harrison Ford line, right? 7:00 Like, empty leg is the cookie 'cause they're gonna come back wanting a glass of milk, and you have the ability to offer that big glass of milk that they really truly wanted in the first place, right? Yeah. 7:10 But you can't start by s- pushing the glass of milk on them. You gotta start with the cookie, and empty legs is one of those things which builds into potentially, like, a loyalty program, right? 7:20 Ultimately, every 135 operator, 704 in Canada, has to try and be able to bring in new customers, but also create loyalty around those customers that are already there. 7:33 And that's difficult because you're not just a private aviation service provider, you're a lot more than that, and that means you have to follow the entire customer journey, right? Mm-hmm. 7:44 Which if you're gonna really wanna get fanatic about it, it's when they wake up in the morning, and when they get to the FBO, and where their destination is, and which hotel they stay at, and when they leave. 7:54 That entire customer journey, you need to be able to be present at as many places as you can throughout that journey. And today, we just see ourselves as, "Nope, we're just the transportation sector." Right. 8:04 But, you know, if you open that up, there's so much more opportunity. Totally. I mean, look how, you know, the airlines have done this over the years. 8:11 I think, you know, I read an article a couple months ago, how did airlines really become banks and not actually airlines? 8:16 You know, this, the loyalty memberships, the points, you know, all the value that exists in the credit cards that they're offering. 8:23 You know, yes, our core mission is to fly people safely, but let's be honest, it's a very expensive industry to be in, and maybe you need to diversify your, your stream somehow, and that can come in many different forms. 8:36 And dare I say it, you know, there's, there's pluses and minuses, goods and bads in the industry about this company, but one thing that Kenny Dichter knows how to do really well is create an excellent brand that people can identify with. 8:50 One of the-- At the beginning of Wheels Up, there was a program called 8760, if you can recall. Mm-hmm. Which I think 8760 is the total number of hours in a year or something like that- Yeah... 9:00 if you do the math real quick. I think so. So but it was-- or, like, let's just call it Wheels Down program, right? 9:06 Whatever it is, ultimately, it was, you know, exclusive sporting events, uh, you know, a bunch of luxury events and luxury retailers that they all packaged in, luxury vil- villa rentals, right? 9:20 These experiences that just go beyond aviation and transportation, which-- and it was such a successful program, right? Yeah. 9:28 But, you know, then they had to go back to, "Well, we bought 75 King Airs and we have to fly them," right? So that's a whole other problem [laughs] that they had. Yeah. But it-- what an incredible, uh, launchpad, right? 9:40 And, you know, if only every operator started doing something like that curated for their client base, you know, it'd be a home run. Oh, yeah. It's not easy to do. 9:48 With that, we're gonna wrap up our overtime, but that was excellent information for a lot of 135s out there and a lot of folks in general that are interested. 9:55 Um, so keep an eye on those empty legs if you're a flyer out there listening. [outro music]
