Création d'une société d'air-taxi basée à Liège Airport.

Abstract

Being an aerospace engineer and having a private pilot licence, this thesis for HEC was the perfect opportunity for me to develop a company linked to the aviation. A couple of years ago, I had the idea that air-taxi was the new way to travel within Europe. Indeed, more and more people have more than one million of dollars on Earth and in Europe, the large companies does not want to waste time in crowded airports and spend money for hotel rooms that are not absolutely necessary. The air-taxi is the solution for these people but also for a larger public. If the destination is a remote place where there is a small airport but the regular airlines do not provide flights to go there, the air-taxi is also a solution. Consequently, the goal of this thesis is to present an air-taxi company based in Liege Airport. This base has been selected because there are a lot of advantages: 24H/7D operations, no regular airline during the day, two runways and so on. Moreover, I believe in the development of this city and therefore a more intensive use of its airport could help the growth of the region. In the thesis, the main themes of a company creation are treated. It begins with the business model explained in details, then a small market analysis is made. It is certainly the part that needs to be deepened in further studies. After that, the competitors are analysed and it is shown that a regular airline is not cheaper in all cases. The critical elements of the company are then selected (aircraft model, number of planes,…) and a cost per hour can be calculated from there. The strategy is the next important topic with for instance a SWOT matrix. To complete the thesis, a finance plan is shown to prove the viability of such a company.