All in a day: Francois Chazelle

What is your background in the aviation field?

After a decade with Bureau Veritas the quality, health, security and environment inspection consultancy, I joined Airbus as a sales director, initially for airlines in Eastern Europe. Later I moved to the Airbus corporate jet side of the business, and was instrumental in our first sales to private customers in both India and China. I became head of Airbus corporate jet commercial activities almost five years ago.

What does a typical day involve?

It often means getting on to, or stepping off, an aircraft, because our customers are spread around the world and creating and building relationships with them is so important. We’ll also be displaying at even more shows this year – it averages out at one a month – so my team and I will spend a lot of time in and around an Airbus corporate jet, meeting with existing and potential customers. Fortunately, Airbus corporate jets have the widest and tallest cabin of any business jet, so it’s a very comfortable way to do business at a show!

We’ve sold about 170 Airbus corporate jets and, since many of our customers have just one aircraft, that’s a lot of customers and operators to keep satisfied.

What do you see as your greatest challenges in your position?

Two of our biggest challenges are product awareness and growth. People know Airbus for its airliners – we’ve sold more than 11,000 of them – but they don’t always know that we are big in corporate jets, or what they have to offer. For example, most people are surprised to learn that we fit into the same ramp space as traditional business jets while offering a cabin that is almost twice as wide. The growing number of companies offering Airbus corporate jets for VVIP charter – there are around 15 today – and their popularity for such flights, is helping to change that, as is our larger presence on the airshow circuit. Our customer and operator base continues to grow, which is why we formed a dedicated business unit for our corporate jets, within Airbus, at the start of this year. This regroups commercial, programmes and support activities, and is helping us to be more responsive to customers and operators.

With ACJ a global brand, why did you choose to be based in Dubai?

Our two biggest markets are Europe and the Middle East, so having part of the team in each gives us a presence in both. The Middle East is also the biggest market in the world for VIP and government wide-bodies, and Dubai is accessible with a good business climate and lifestyle.

Have you seen a difference in the type of customer or, indeed, the number of customers you are talking to in the MENA region in the past few years?

Worldwide our customers comprise companies, individuals and governments, in roughly equal proportions. We have a higher proportion of individual and government customers in the Middle East and North Africa and that has not really changed. What is new is the growing importance of the Asian market – especially China and India – which has the highest rates of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the world, and is a relatively new market for business jets.