Klagenfurt, Austria-based brokerage AlbaJet Charter was launched in May to primarily serve Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Founder Oliver Smith-Aichbichler previously worked at UK-headquartered brokerage PrivateFly as well as a large European aircraft operator. He saw a gap in the market and decided last year to take what he had learned from both sides of the market to start his own company.

He says his approach is somewhat different to many of the well-known players: all the web development and digital marketing has been handled in-house by a very small self-financed team. This meant AlbaJet was able to go live within 12 months, without the need for any external investment funding. Being only 26 years old, and what he calls a typical millennial, he focussed on leveraging the latest technologies wherever possible, which enabled him to minimise the many inefficiencies in the industry. For example, direct API access to the aircraft availability of operators relieves two major pressure points in the supply chain. The first is that customers receive charter quotes significantly faster, and secondly, the workload of aircraft operators is reduced to an absolute minimum.

Smith-Aichbichler has lived in the UK, Germany, Austria and Italy and speaks English, German and Italian. Thus AlbaJet was able to operate in three languages from day one. The company's main target region is initially Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He says: "We aim to disrupt the German-speaking market by being one of the few players in it that provides instant and accurate charter price estimates in a couple of clicks."

Looking forward, his goal is to have a fully remote office in which team members are able to work worldwide, supplemented by regular meetings at the Austrian HQ for training and teambuilding purposes.