Leona Qi is president of VistaJet U.S., a role that she has held since September 2018. She previously was president of VistaJet Asia-Pacific.
Q. VistaJet had a very strong 2022. What is your focus and outlook for 2023?
A. Last year was a tremendous business year and a busy one for everyone in private aviation because of the surging demands. A big focus for us in 2022 was to grow the customer base. The Vista group also acquired and invested in several companies, including Jet Edge in the United States. We were very busy in the second half of the year and we had great results in Q3, with three times the customer base growth, which was largely attributed to the influx of fleet and availability. We sell a subscription-based program with a closed fleet, so we are busy integrating the (Jet Edge) fleet and making sure it’s united—from the exterior paint to the flight attendance training. We don’t have our full-year results yet, but I can tell you anecdotally in Q4 we had the most flights ever for the holiday season.
The weather and supply chain disruptions caused big problems for the airlines—and fuel supply. We flew to airports during the holidays where you had to wait three hours for fuel and they were rationing it. As an operator, we needed to make sure our clients got home and everyone was safe. For large operators like us, we have more than 360 aircraft around the globe, we do use commercial airlines to fly our crew, and that factors into how crew duty is calculated. We are recruiting pilots but with the pilot shortage and airline flight delays and cancellations, we have to minimize that impact for our business.
In January, our biggest task is to regroup and make sure we overcome that hurdle. For 2023, we’re going to figure that out, continue to unite our fleet, continue to train our staff and expand our recruiting efforts to make sure that we can continue to give customers the best service.
Q. Have you encountered fuel rationing much?
A. It doesn’t occur often. Last year it happened at Turks and Caicos. This past holiday season there was fuel rationing at Cabo San Lucas, where you had to wait three to four hours to get fuel. So, we refuel at other airports to avoid that. This was an industry-wide problem—the supply chain is not fully restored and it was a more pronounced problem during the holidays.
Q. Going back to recruiting, is VistaJet primarily focused on pilot or broader staffing, too?
A. It’s across the board because it takes a lot for one flight to take off because of our premium service. Each flight includes VVIP catering. We just enhanced our partnership with Nobu, for example. In addition to the private dining team, we need finance people for billing. We are also hiring crew and our own maintenance staff because we are insourcing some work. It comes down to how we as an operator and service provider can make sure that service is minimally disrupted.
Q. What work still needs to be completed in 2023 to harmonize the fleet, following the acquisition of Jet Edge in 2022?
A. We started painting the acquired aircraft in silver and red and modifying the interiors with our iconic carpet in August 2022. To minimize aircraft downtime, we try to schedule this work to coincide with scheduled maintenance. Our traditional fleet was all Bombardier—from the Challenger to the 7500. Because of the investment, we added Gulfstream G450s. The windows are different, but customers will have the same look across the fleet.
In addition, flight attendants coming in complete a six-week course at the British Butler Institute. Each month we have flight attendants graduating from the program.
For interior amenities, we use Egyptian cotton and Christofle china. We ordered all that last year but we’re still waiting for some of it to be delivered. We hope to finish bringing the entire fleet to the VistaJet standard in the next six to nine months.
Q. Do you think inflationary pressures will curtail business aviation market growth in 2023?
A. I think it will still be a seller’s aircraft market in 2023. We could replace aircraft ownership or supplement aircraft ownership. I also think this year will be another good year for the Vista group, including XO, to grow membership on both sides.
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