For our Perspectives series, we talk to experienced business aviation industry professionals, who share with us their unique insights and offer a window into their world. This month's interviewee is Thomas Flohr, founder of Vista Global Holding and XO, a global digital marketplace for private aviation that combines XOJET with JetSmarter technology. Flohr also created charter powerhouse VistaJet.

“The biggest challenge in our industry is the misconception that it’s just about luxury and excess. The vast majority of our fliers are people who are looking for an efficient and time saving way to travel. We provide a service that ensures consistency and ease of use. Our flights, particularly through our VistaJet business, ensure a home-away-from-home for our fliers. VistaJet is continually flying the world’s leading CEOs and boards across the world – what we provide them is a time-saving way to travel that completely removes stress and hassle. Our role is to ensure they can get to the right meetings on time and in comfort. The biggest problem probably remains wasted flights and seats. With the creation of XO, we’re aiming to vastly reduce that by providing seat sharing options. If we have fliers that don’t need to book a whole aircraft then they can book a seat on an existing flight and share with others. It means that flying is even more efficient and accessible for everyone involved.

“Across all industries, customers are looking for the latest technology, a greater reliance upon the shared economy and are demanding corporations to be more environmentally and ethically responsible. This opens the door to new opportunities for XO. We are challenging ourselves every day to harness the best technology and ensure there is greater flexibility in our offerings by providing a marketplace for all private flying customers. This is what sets us apart from the rest.

“Most people would be content with what we have achieved in the past 12 months, changing the face of an industry and revolutionising the customer experience, but we are always looking to push further. We’ve built the scale and infrastructure, and have the experience to challenge industry norms – our focus is on bringing the most innovative products and technological solutions to strengthen our unrivalled customer offering through each platform.”