From left: Geoff Bailey joins Jenny Hjelstrom and Steve Whitehead at EFS

Brokers are key to EFS expansion plans

Swedish operator European Flight Service (EFS) believes that brokers are vital to the realisation of the company's expansion plans for the next few years.

On a visit to the company's recently expanded UK office at London Farnborough airport, EFS business manager Jenny Hjelström told Charter Broker: “Between 2012 and 2014 we have doubled our ad hoc charter business, and the majority of that work came from brokers.”

With a current fleet of four jets (Embraer Legacy 600, Gulfstream 500, Cessna Citation Sovereign and XLS) the company believes it has a fleet that can accommodate most trip requests, while still offering a boutique service to clients and brokers.

As well as welcoming the company's Legacy to Farnborough, the UK office has been augmented by long-standing aviation industry expert Geoff Bailey as sales and marketing manager. Bailey stressed the importance to EFS of brokers: “A good broker will have the client relationship that you need.”

That view was supported by UK manager Steve Whitehead: “The market needs a personal approach and you cannot buy that from an online service. For example, we get a lot of positive broker feedback about our catering, which has been developed purely by personal contact with a local catering company, which works with us to perfect those small touches.”

EFS plans to increase its fleet, concentrating on the UK and Scandinavian markets to drive its growth over the next five years.