Brokers, guests and press

Another non standard week in Celloland. After a couple of  training visits by the aircraft,  G-RAJJ finally arrives  to be based at  Birmingham.   Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are given over to  broker and guest days, with many invited guests reviewing the product.

Scrubbed up  and  ready for the guest arrivals-That's the staff and the aircraft  !

A hectic 3 days  with the aircraft populated by football clubs,  air charter brokers, sports team travel agents, product launch organisers and then ''the meeja.''

We get to  show off the  aircraft  and the on board product.

New hand held inflight entertainment  system with its integral iPOD/iPHONE docking station gets the thumbs up from  the customers and the brokers. Customers have the choice of watching their own iPOD loaded films or choosing from  system preloaded films or games. Product launch customers  can provide DVD based messages and films to  be viewed  enroute to  product viewings. 

Management staff  from  Birmingham Airport, its security staff  and the tower and radar  Air traffic Controllers at Birmingham get the walk around Friday afternoon. It's great to  see such interest in this operation.  

A little liquid refreshment for some of the attending visitors.

Not a bad bunch of people !!

Mystic Meg  tells us that 7th June is an important date

It's not all designer passenger terminals and 10,000 foot runways

The beginning of the week brought some interesting requests for quotation. The  a.p.u and integral airstairs on  the ABJ  provide a high level of self sufficiency. Coupling this with a good short field performance  gives this aircraft type advantage  at the more remote regional airfields. Which is just aswell . Of the many requests for quotation  a couple already have requested  some of the remote European airfields with limited  support facilities- ideal for the ABJ.  It  looks like  the man with the key to the front gate will be providing the security checks, escorting the passengers to the aircraft, providing the re-fuelling and filing the flight plan in some instances! But if it's licensed  and can provide category 6 fire cover- we can go  there. It may save the customer  considerable ground transportation time to  actual destination compared with  the use of more distant but larger airfields.

A quick look at the Jeppesen airfield plates and the aircraft performance  charts will determine any payload / range restrictions.

Meanwhile the 'normal' charter requests for premiership sports teams closed season movements, entertainment industry tours  and car product launches continue to arrive.

G-RAJJ  will be visiting  other Uk midlands and northern airfields over the next few days  as it completes its  CAA required 10 sector proving flights 

So which lucky 3 will crew the first revenue flight?

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Back in Birmingham

Things get  back  to normal  in the office after  a very successful week in Geneva - that is if anything at a start up carrier like Cello is normal!

The flight deck crew have one final slot in the sim next week to  complete the London City approvals, followed by 10 proving flights over 2 days in G-RAJJ

Considering the  airline was a complete unknown in the VIP air charter market 8 weeks ago, its gratifying to  see such a large number of  brokers and customers placing their faith  in this new product.
Since EBACE we 've been receiving  up to  10 requests a day  from UK and European brokers supporting  a wide range of customer types.

A new member of the marketing team, Vince Essex joins us as the business workload  increases to help with broker liaison.

We get the aircraft  for charter broker days on 26/27/28 May  at Birmingham, where we are scheduling group broker visits and separately, individual brokers with their guest customers . Email invitations are sent today, but there already seems to  be an overflow of demand and so the commercial team has  additionally reserved the aircraft  3 and 4 June against additional broker visit requests.
Any brokers who  have 'slipped through the net' are welcome to contact us at vince.essex@flycello.com  to  receive a broker day invitation.

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That's it -a successful EBACE is over

No rain , no wind  and the blue sky sees a rush of  visitors  from  the exhibition halls to  the aircraft static park .
Thursday proved to  be the busiest of the 3 days for the Cello staff  with the British and European  air charter brokers continuing to  not only visit the aircraft, but also  leave charter requests for quotation. One of the visiting UK brokers gets to  make the Business aviation press with a photo call in front  of  the Cello Aircraft.
The final count has yet to be done but early estimates are up to  200 air charter broker visits.
The 'competition'  are in attendence again - well it's a product different in quality from  anything else in the market  

More visitors from  the Middle East meet with BAe staff - the aircraft type already a success with the region's Presidential and Royal flightsin VVIP layout.

Same aircraft -different customers.  The smell of new leather ( and the occassional offer of something a little alcoholic) seems to  leave the visitors with that feeling of wellbeing!

And its all over . The doors are closed and the staff finally get 5 minutes to  relax before  prep'ing the aircraft  for a 1820 local  slot departure from  Geneva back to  the UK .

It's back to  Birmingham for the crew and staff while the aircraft  gets another 10 days in Southend  with the final shake down on the interior. The visitors don't see them - but the staff have a list of minor cabin cosmetic snags for remedial attention .

Attention to  detail  is what Cello Aviation is all about.

So back to the office to plan for UK broker days and broker guest days in Birmingham between 20 and 30 May

And its not just about the large air transports

What  an elegant 4 place interior  for this Embraer Phenom on the adjacent stand

  

What a great industry this is !!!

EBACE Day 2

Life continues apace in Celloland. Day 2 of EBACE  brings rain instead of wind but fails to  reduce the flow of visitors to the aircraft.

Limiting the visitors to 10 at any one time (in order to  allow a certain level of privacy for the discussions taking place) we get queues forming at the foot of the airstairs .

Middle Eastern Prince  and Presidential Flight visitors mix with air charter brokers and  aircraft suppliers.
A competitor is welcomed aboard- ''just passing and thought they'd see what we're up to''  -well now they know! Irish Air broker enquiring about  a shuttle operation  from  Ireland to  support next year's Cheltenham  Gold Cup  and a revisit from  another broker placing  a USA entertainment group European tour  who are requesting more interior shots .

A large proportion of European brokers on our wish list  have now made contact during the show

You would find it hard to  believe global economic difficulties arent too far away, looking at the attendence volumes at the show and the business being done .

Just in case anyone didnt know what the aircraft type is !

Day 1 at EBACE

 Day 1  brought winds gusting to  35 kt  but this didnt deter the  visitors to the  exhibition


BAe Systems press launch  gives a mention  to  the Cello Aircraft  as they display lateral thinking in developing the next concept for the Avrojet.

In addition to  the major photo requests for internal shots, Flightglobal  film interviews aboard G- RAJJ  for broadcast on its  daily webcast from  EBACE .

Many of our target customer base have visited  by 11am and some additional charter requests arrive with the visitors- over 100 visitors to  the aircraft during the day.

Busy time onboard with Cello and BAe visitors.

End of the day clean up  and prep.

And tomorrow we do it all over again !

Pre Exhibition day in Geneva

Its pre exhibition day at EBACE  and the staff have spent 4 hours prep'ing the aircraft.

Cello's Avrojet  arrived yesterday, all aircraft  arrivals carefully orchestrated  in order to  slot them into   their respective ramp positions. 

With rain forecast  for at least one day  protective covers are applied to the carpets.

The galleys are loaded and the interior gets a final once over. 

We've even brought  patio table and chairs just incase the sun shows itself. 

BAe Systems  colours are  added to  the Cello scheme for the duration  of the exhibition.

Even the pilots get to  polish the  paintwork!

Even though the exhibition  hasn't started there's no  shortage of visitors to the Cello aircraft,especially the journalist and photographer community  wanting  shots of the interior 

Something  for the weekend sir?

Big boys(and girls) weekend toys

There's something for everyone  at EBACE

EBACE launches at 10 am  Tuesday