15 years of extensive knowledge of Euro Jet – interview EBACE 2023

Year 2023 is special for Euro Jet – 15th anniversary. Strong global network of aviation professionals on-the-ground and in operations makes them ready to provide you with the peace of mind. Enjoy your flight knowing that this team is working on your flight to make the operation seamless. Obviously, we had to step by, wish happy anniversary and use this opportunity to discuss with Karol “Charlie” Bodnar, CEO of Euro Jet. Here is the essential of our discussion:

Q. On the second day of EBACE, are you happy with the first day? 

C.B. How can I not be happy is Euro Jet is celebrating 15th anniversary! I am very proud that we are here this year. The size at EBACE doubled since last year, there are a lot of interesting people out there. We had a very good turn off and it has been great.

Q. What do you expect form this year? Just people coming saying hi happy anniversary, clients coming to congratulate. 

C.B. It has been many, plenty of clients. I keep telling them – you say happy birthday – I say we are now in our teenage years, we are fifteen, and we are looking forward to the majority, so another 5 – 10 years. I think we’ve learned a little bit of what and how. We proved ourselves to the industry that we belong here, that we are a serious player on the market. When it comes to ground handling, especially on our core territory. It is great that we can say we outgrow ourselves. It’s been good 15 years!  

Q. What are your biggest challenges? What is still complicated for you?

C.B. My biggest challenge.. I would like to serve everyone, but obviously, it is not possible. The market is segmented down from large aircraft companies to small operators. However, I think the biggest challenges as it comes to now is operating under sanctions, trying to survive, the COVID  was  very challenging. What we’ve learned during COVID – sharing information is the key. I think what helped us a lot during COVID when traffic was boosting, the fact that we had local information and operators relied on that information. Because of that we kept things moving. When we thought that everything is OK now, the situation happened with the war, and it became very challenging to understand in depth who customers are. Investigating in depth, who are shareholders behind the companies. 

Q. So you are doing a little bit of private detective for private aviation?

C.B. We’re doing a lot of private detectives, we have a whole team set up reviewing sanctions lists, checking it. Even we comply with everything 100%, banks are even more conservatives than the sanctions lists, and they are also very heavily restricting bank wires, which is a big problem. However, so far so good.    

Q. Talking about sustainable aviation – what you do in this matter? Do you think we need to explain more to a large public and to our customers what exactly we are doing not to be called climate criminals?

C.B. Definitely. I’ve been talking about this yesterday on the booth.  We as a ground handling company were don’t have any aircraft, so emitting very few of CO2. However where we are stepping in the game – we changed our vehicles to electrical; airport infrastructure is supporting this idea – you have free parking if you have electrical vehicle, its great. I think that it is time and there is a smart way of operating an aircraft. If we cut down empty legs, it would be something really beneficial for the industry. Being more responsible towards our planet and start from our home, not from private jets. So, if someone is not doing recycling properly why don’t we look at that first, before we go and talk large.  I wouldn’t say that this problem with climate is something which is not serious. I totally disagree with the way how this problem is brought up. I think that if people who are aggressing the industry would sit down on the table with us and we would explain, it would be much more useful for the civilization that this wokisme. As a matter of fact, our company is dealing  emergency readiness program for airlines, yesterday case ( Greenpeace activists attack on EBACE static display) just proved that. They created even more carbon path – many airplanes were cruising for 2 hours over Geneva, before they could land.

Q. What you would wish to your company for next 5 years to come?

C.B. That’s a good question. I would really like the company to become more mature. To become a leader in the information flow so. My key is connecting our customers through API, cutting off e-mails and they would get the information much quicker. I would like to have a solid base of customers who trusts us. And of course, just a little bit of luck would be great for next 5 years!