With the potential for growth in the private aviation industry to increase by 50 per cent in 2022, how will operators cope with the higher demand? TailHail founder and CEO James Moon says the major catalyst driving growth can be attributed to Covid, as commercial aviation has failed to invoke a sense of certainty for many, bringing huge opportunity for the private aviation sector. For thousands of new customers, a seed of trustworthiness has been planted by the business aviation sector that will continue to sprout for years to come; the return to long lines, countless hours spent in terminals and security points will be a hard pill to swallow for new private jet travellers.

Many people he has spoken to are surprised that they can afford to fly private, but some are deterred by current processes; they say it is not as easy as booking an airline ticket. The TailHail system increases accessibility to the market and will allow operators to connect with flyers in real time, reducing manual touchpoints significantly.

Lack of time efficiency prevents operators from seizing opportunities and maximising the use of their flights, as manual processes do not allow for flight information to be distributed effectively. Countless operators do not receive flight enquiries and charters on time, so their aircraft remain grounded and incur higher costs.

There is also the issue of empty legs, an unsustainable practice that results in a waste of resources. If TailHail can fill seats on empty leg flights rather than a direct charter, the carbon footprint of each flight is reduced.

The platform will allow operators to upload their flight information via excel format, through the website itself or automatically via an API, then the app displays all empty leg flight information, transient availability and general aircraft availability, in real time. And similar to the way in which Uber operates, clients will be able to rate each aircraft they fly on. Rating the inflight experience, overall crew service or the general condition of the aircraft will support clients' future aircraft selections when requesting and booking an aircraft.

"At TailHail we believe that with increased demand, so operators and business aviation stakeholders have a responsibility to improve and digitalise what is a seemingly linear relationship that underpins this trillion-dollar industry - customer to operator to carrier," says Moon. "The reality at the moment is an infrastructure steeped in offline limitations and disorder."