WORKING WEEK
flightglobal.com 17-23 March 2015 | Flight International | 43
Barber co-launched JetBrokers (then Europe) at the NBAA show in 2009Life of an international jet seller
Tim Barber is regional managing director of business aircraft sales broker and consultancy JetBrokers as well as
a partner in Daher TBM 900 distributor Aura Aviation, roles that take him around the world in search of buyers
WORK EXPERIENCE TIM BARBER
reflected in the statistics as we
move through 2015. However, all
too often the sales are only being
achieved as a result of aggressive
pricing. The market is very seg-
mented and in some areas we see
the inventory rising and prices
falling, while in other areas we
see stable or reducing inventory
accompanied by more stable pric-
ing. Basic supply and demand
economics, but it’s fascinating just
how localised it can be.
What are the major challenges
for an aircraft broker?
The main challenges are the inun-
dation of enquiries from prospec-
tive buyers from dubious sources.
You can’t write off any enquiry,
but it’s clear many of the Gmail,
Yahoo or Hotmail accounts they
come from are merely our com-
petitors researching. I just wish
everyone made the enquiry in
their real name and stated that
they were researching, because in
the long run we’d all benefit: bro-
kers, owners, sellers and buyers.
Finding listings is always a chal-
lenge, and it’s always disappoint-
ing to be verbally promised some-
thing, only to later see a U-turn- but we’re all used to that by
now. It’s patience and tenacity –
you have to play the long game. Q
Why did you pursue a career in
the aviation industry?
It began by chance, really. I came
out of a senior corporate role and
was taking some time with my
young family. After a year or so I
started thinking about a new
challenge. At that time, I was ap-
proached by John Merry, now my
business partner in Aura Aviation
and the business formerly known
as JetBrokers Europe, to see if I’d
be interested in bringing an estab-
lished and respected US aircraft
sales brand into Europe, and that
was my first dealings with JetBro-
kers. John had bought and sold
many of his own personal aircraft
through JetBrokers over a number
of years and believed that they
had the professionalism and in-
tegrity to make a long-term part-
ner. After much research and due
diligence we launched JetBrokers
Europe at NBAA 2009. We subse-
quently gained the distributor-
ship for the Daher-Socata TBM
850 and created Aura Aviation to
oversee that side of the business.
We continue as aircraft sales rep-
resentative for the now upgraded
and renamed TBM 900.
Tell us about your current role?
I am pretty mobile. At the end of
last year I was in Georgia, India,
the USA and Istanbul within a
few weeks of each other. I also
travelled to Dubai twice in three
weeks, along with other European
cities. We need to see the aircraft
that we are selling or buying and
we also have to visit our clients
and prospects. So on any given
day I can be anywhere in the
world. Not only am I looking for
aircraft to sell and also actively
selling aircraft, but I am also look-
ing out for new business partners,
new locations and so on. Most
days I’ll find five minutes to log
onto the social media channels
that we use, mainly LinkedIn and
Twitter, both of which are increas-
ingly interesting platforms that
can’t be ignored. There’ll be many
conference calls between the vari-
ous teams across the globe, invari-
ably at strange times of day, and
when there’s a deal to close then
it’s easy to get totally consumed at
this stage of the process.
Where do you source aircraft?
They are sourced globally. We
have listings of aircraft in Eu-
rope, Asia, the Middle East and,
of course, the USA. We have
enormous physical and virtual
networks and this is effectively
our lifeblood. We gain our listing
of aircraft to sell through direct
contact with owners, although a
good proportion of the leads will
come about as a result of intro-ductions from business partners,
satisfied customers, aviation pro-
fessionals and recommendations
from former clients and so on.
How is the market for pre-
owned business jets in Europe?
The market today is certainly
showing some signs of improve-
ment. It’s not unusual for brokers
to be talking the market up, but
we closed five deals in January
and had a strong February, sell-
ing three Learjets in a single
week. Our biggest challenge now
is to replace the sold inventory
with new aircraft to sell. Fortu-
nately we have quite a few acqui-
sition projects keeping us busy at
the moment, but our for-sale in-
ventory is now down to around
20-25 aircraft, which is about as
low as I have seen it.
Everyone I speak to in our sec-
tor reports a good level of activity,
but it’s easy to be busy whilst not
achieving results. At present I feel
we are seeing a pretty busy sector
and the results will hopefully beJetBrokersIf you would like to feature in
Working Week, or you know
someone who does, email your
pitch to kate.sarsfield@
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