Making sure there's a need

[Det]

I'm a pilot looking to start an airplane tour company in my city. Currently there are no airplane tour companies however there is one helicopter one. As the countryside is what people come to see, an aircraft tour seems much more appropriate. I wouls be starting with a single aircraft which i can fly myself temporarily to cut extra costs before hiring pilots/expanding to other cities/buying more aircraft.

This helicopter company has been around for 13 years so I'm assuming business is going well for them.

I am not too confident when it comes to the Need for this. Our city is in one the top destinations for family holidays from northern Europe so marketing and becoming known would be key. Aircraft tours are generally much cheaper than helicopter so accessibility would be much greater for clients.

I noticed people on the forum generally listen for complaints from people in their everyday lives in order to come up with an idea. This was not the case for me thus why I'm not too sure on the Need.

What are some methods to find out the Need for an idea?

Thanks in advance

 

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[tafy]

I'm assuming business is going well for them

Can you check any company records or anything to see their turnover?

 

[Hope]

Here is what I'd personally do.

1. Build a nice looking landing page to gauge whether people would actually be interested or not.
2. Market said landing page with social network advertisements and maybe even some old school local ads (both digital and physical ads would be targeted for the local population and possible tourists.
3. After figuring out whether there is actually a need for this or not, then if so, I'd build a website and start building the business up, so long as it didn't take Too much capital.

 

[Det]

Can you check any company records or anything to see their turnover?

I don't think I can get access to their company records directly. Using the website time machine website I could find out about the expansion of their chopper fleet (fleet size did increase). This gives me some reason to believe their turnovers have been going well.

 

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[MayaMagpie]

Need is one thing, but it's not everything... I don't actually *need* a ton of chocolate, but I will buy, because I love chocolate. It provides value to me. If you can provide value by doing awesome tours, then you may have a good start.

As Hope said, build a landing page (quick job, nothing too fancy, but nice looking), get people on there and see if they like your offer. If they do, great. If not, maybe you can find out why not.

 

[JEdwards]

Easy business, Since i guess you already own the plane or can rent it easily and you doing the flying. Besides some insurance your cost is minimal. I would get with whatever advertiser in your city that does the hotel thing, create a nice flyer with a nice phone number, and or website.

If I remember correctly in my city, you have to do it for a year, and it was like 5k for brochures and 300 a month for them to restock the hotel rooms or something like that. So the question is Can you risk $10k to see if this idea flys?

I think it would be worth it for a test.

 

[jazb]

So the question is Can you risk $10k to see if this idea flys?

i see what you did there

 

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[Geeko]

Time wise how long are people on the tour for: heli vs. plane?
To the average tourisg their minds might go "plane go too fast, i wont see city. Helicopter go slow, ill see the city". If you get a website going maybe put that under FAQ. Some high quality aerial pictures during a flight would be almost a must for a website. Try and get into tourist attraction books aswell.

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[Jam Wheel]

Are there any basic differentiators for comfort, time, value, etc that provide an advantage for the plane over helicopter?

Do you fly from the same airfield or have access to the FBOs at the airfield where the helicopter business is operating from? You could always do some light competitive intelligence by having some discussions with airfield folks in a casual manner - "that so and so helicopter business has been around for a while, guess hes doing pretty good huh!" and see where that goes. Alternatively, if you have a chance and its not too obvious, maybe hang around and see what population gets on the helicopter and the load rate for each tour. It would also give you an idea as to how to target and position the marketing.

Any reviews online for this guys service on tripadvisor, etc? Sometimes those can throw up concerns that you can solve with your business, or at the very least make sure not to repeat

Finally, you could maybe back into the math for his revenue/profit if you can make some estimates based on cost (airfield fees, petrol, maintenance and capital costs for helicopter, trained pilots) and potential revenue (avg cost of tour * avg utilization rate per tour* number of helicopters). I wouldn't spend a ton of time on it, but it could give you a ballpark figure.

Sounds pretty neat!

 

[Det]

Thanks for the replies, each and every one of them are very useful. Building a landing page is an excellent idea for a rough prediction on the interest of the general population at low costs. Also I could temporarily rent aircraft from other people before buying my own as there will be less costs to be paid (airport fees such as hangar use).

As for the advertising, I already have in mind several hotels who would allow me to advertise within their property thanks to networking.

A very good example of a tour company having gone global would be City Sightseeing so I am not too worried about scaling just yet! Really curious as to what their revenue is though.

 

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[Det]

Worked out the annual cost is no more than 1700 USD (maintenance, parking etc.) and it would cost me $100 an hour to actually fly the aircraft (fuel, oil, airport landing fees, etc). I can charge clients about $150- $200 per person per hour; maximum of three clients per tour.

Not sure about having a small office by the airport as well just yet. As bookings would be made online, I don't see the necessity, especially having to hire a secretary.

 

[Windsurfer]

Also I could temporarily rent aircraft from other people before buying my own as there will be less costs to be paid (airport fees such as hangar use).

As a former pilot myself, I am reminding of another pilot's advice I once received:

"If it flies, floats, or f*cks, RENT it!" (I think he had been divorced three times)

Unless your business really takes off (pun intended), and you can find a good reliable rental company, it seems like you might not want to ever buy (and maintain) the aircraft! Keeping costs down is the name of the game in both big and small businesses.