An equipment financing expert, Kacin will be pivotal in developing relationships and supporting clients across the Northeast and Midwest, according to the company. He will report to Mike Christie, who became head of Sales for the Americas in March.

Commenting on his new role Kacin said: “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to help both corporate and UHNWI [Ultra High Net Worth Individual] clients benefit from the innovative and customised financing solutions Global Jet Capital offers for the business aviation market.”

Before joining Global Jet Capital, Kacin served in sales leadership and management roles for Webster Capital Finance, Terex Financial Services, Citibank, and Wachovia.

Alongside the appointment, the company is reorganising its North American sales territories.

Hannah Davis, formerly vice president of Sales for the Eastern US, will now lead the newly-formed Southeastern US region. John Arlinghaus, formerly associate sales director of the central US region, will now oversee the Western US region and Latin America.

Christie welcomed Kacin to the team: “Tom’s passion for aviation and strong equipment finance background will help us continue to provide bespoke solutions to our clients,” he said. “The territory realignment will provide better coverage of key markets allowing our team to be closer to our key partners.”

Meanwhile, in May Vivek Kaushal, CEO, Global Jet Capital said: “The business jet market has never been in a better place.” 

Global Jet Capital territory re-organisation – at a glance

• Tom Kacin, vice president, Sales for the Northeastern and Midwest US region
• Hannah Davis leads the newly-formed Southeastern US region
• John Arlinghaus oversees the Western US region and Latin America.

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ARGUS is widely considered the “most accurate and detailed third-party due diligence system” for registered charter brokers globally. 

Ed Wandall, ARGUS, vice president, said: “Flapper not only has an impressive technology platform, but highly skilled and knowledgeable people throughout their organisation. They perform a high level of due diligence on all their flights and have forged valuable relationships with the Civil Aviation Authorities in South America.”

In the last year Flapper integrated with the API of the Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority, allowing daily verification of all Part 135-registered aircraft in the country. Flapper’s next step is to integrate with similar APIs to assure full Part 135 compliance of aircraft inventory in its systems.

Paul Malicki, CEO of Flapper added: “From training of our team members to carefully selecting partner operators, to meticulously planning every flight, we are committed to the industry’s best practices. As we are expanding our international footprint, we’d like to further benefit from access to ARGUS data, its impressive know-how and experienced team.”

The post Flapper becomes first Argus certified broker south of the equator appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.

The company intends to use this funding for three purposes: setting up operations in four new countries, investing in technology and continuing relationships with local air taxi companies.

Flapper CEO Paul Malicki told Corporate Jet Investor that the company is in expansion mode. “We are opening charter and empty legs operations in four new countries: Chile, Argentina Colombia and Mexico. That means a local team, payment system and salespeople, with the opportunity to offer charter, empty legs and possibly shared flights,” he said.   

The funding will help grow Flapper’s tech team as well, which is in its final stage of adding multiple currency options on the platform. Malicki says the team plans to continue “testing routes and cultivating large partnerships with local air taxi companies as part our second vertical”.

According to the campaign pitch: “Flapper increased its revenues in 2019 by 251% and intends to maintain three-digit growth in 2020.”

This year has seen a dip in business flights for Flapper, said Malicki, but an increase in leisure, ambulance, and cargo flights. “We are seeing a boom in helicopter transfers at the moment. We had as many as 11 flights from Rio de Janeiro to Angra dos Reis, a resort destination, on one weekend,” he said

Demand is back up, as of October, with a 500% growth in quotations from October 2019 and 390% for the whole of the third quarter.

Malicki said it is difficult to fulfil all the demand because people are requesting a single-seat or charter route which is not operating at the moment. “To counter this, we are looking into some pool features and looking to expand routes towards the end of the year and release some innovative app features,” he said.  

To contribute to the campaign – which has already achieved 40% of its target – investors must sign up to StartMeUp within the next 30 days. The minimum investment is R$ 5,000 (approximately $165) using Boleto or card, with an offer of a 5.88% stake in Flapper.

“Considering a potential IPO [Initial Public Offering] in a few years, this will help us build a pot of equity to investors to get ourselves ready with corporate governance,” said Malicki.

The post Flapper launches R$2.5m crowdfunding campaign through StartMeUp appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.

CJI Global 2020 dives into the Latin American business aviation market. Addressing various subjects such as currency exchange, interest rates, buyer optimism and much more. On today’s esteemed panel is Felipe Bonsenso, CAL Law; Dave Clark, Integris; Sarah Tschudin, UBS; Adriana Simoes, Mattos Filho Law; and Rob Scholl, Textron. 

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