Shah Aslam: SO Capital CEO on their new partnership with PrivatPort to increase business and premium air travel into and around NZ

Auckland is set to the be the new hub for premium travel with the launch of a private jet headquarters. 

Swissport’s executive aviation unit, PrivatPort, has signed a deal today with Auckland-based private equity firm SO Capital. 

It could make business and premium air travel into and around New Zealand easier. 

SO Capital Chief Executive Shah Aslam told Mike Hosking Air Napier will become the first New Zealand operator to join the deal. 

He says it's contributing the facility in Napier to help manage Auckland and the wider Asia-Pacific region. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Booster Weir travel in this country. So private Jets ages
Swiss company Private Port have chosen Auckland as the Asia
Pacific headquarters. Now the idea is to grow executive jet
services across the country as well as Australia and the Pacific.
Shar Islam is so capital CEO and as well as
shar morning.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning Mike, how are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Indeed, what's your company's link with Private Port? So is
this a co lab.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
It is a call ob yes. So we've got air
in Apier based out of Napier where we've got our
own jet handling facility. So as part of the joint venture,
we're contributing our facility down in Napier and helping them
manage Auckland and the later Asia pac region.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Why did they choose Auckland.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, they already had a facility in Auckland, and I
think Auckland being the gateway to New Zealand just made sense.
Most number of private jets are coming to New Zealand
usually come through Auckland. Most of them end up staying
in Auckland, but then some of them obviously go further
down the country as well to enjoy the tourist sides
or business deals, So Auckland just made sense from that
point of view.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Can you scale though the Asia Pacific region, the Australia part,
the Pacific part from Auckland. Does that make sense for them?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
It does? And look as we continue to grow into
Australia and the Pacific Islands, will obviously set up a
presence in those locations as well. But considering that we've
got two locations in New Zealand at the moment, between
Auckland and Napier, it just made sense to start from here.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
So how much of this is about people bringing their
own planes versus people who lease or higher planes for
specific journeys and trips.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's a bit of a mixed bag. I mean there's
a lot of ultra high networks overseas who do have
their own aircraft so they bring them in. And then
there is a big chunk of people like the big
corporates you know, tech CEOs based out of the US
or Europe who end up chartering from the big charter
companies and come across from those.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
What do you see the growth rate being potentially? I mean,
we are we an area of the world where this
sort of thing is going to, you know, exponentially increase
or not.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's not going to be exponential growth in this market.
I think even globally it's not going to be exponential.
But you know, in New Zealand or the Asia pac region,
we're looking at seven percent. I think the biggest thing
we've seen over the last probably three to four years
is that there is a growing number of people who
are starting to come to New Zealand mixed back again
anywhere from tourism to business deals. So I think it's

(02:11):
a good thing for the country, it's a good thing
for the region, and we're hoping that we can continue
to service these aircraft.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Absolutely. I was going to ask how much is leisure
how much is business?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
If I had to guess off the top of my head,
I'd say fifty to fifty. But Mike, as you know,
a lot of these people coming on these aircraft, even
if they are here for leisure, they are always thinking
about business.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
That's true because it exploded post COVID, didn't it. And
I mean I'm talking globally. It became a thing post COVID,
And is that carried on or not?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
It has for the most part. I mean, you know,
beginning of this year we saw a bit of reduction
due to the Iran War and the old crisis, but
we're seeing it start to pick up again. I think
New Zealand again, being in this part of the world
away from a lot of that conflict, it is an
appealing part of the country of the world where people
do come to. And again I think at a global scale,

(02:59):
New Zealand, as you know, is pushing above its weight,
so I think that helps us as well.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Somebody says, here, what does it cost for a family
of five to fly Hamilton to cross Church on a
private jet.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Hamilton the christ As you're looking at probably anywhere between
twenty to thirty thousand on a private jet.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
So twenty to thirty thousand divided by five, seeing you've
got five people on there.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
White people on there. So I mean we're thanks to
er New zan and what's happening with the ticket prices,
We're not far from commercial travel domestically if you think
about it. But again I think the competition is not
commercial travel. The essence of private travel is for businesses.
It's an efficiency and a productivity tool. You know, we've
had business corporates here in New Zealand who can do

(03:42):
three to four different cities both in the North and
South Islands within a day, which just wouldn't be possible
with commercial travel. So I think it's it's less about luxury,
it's more about productivity and efficiency. From where we see.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
It, very good point and I go, well, wish you
the best sha a Islam is with so capital I
just the reason. I'm nothing wrong with the text. But
I had a friend of ours came across private the
other day. They're moving to New Zealand. They brought their pet,
so they didn't want to put their pet in a
plane in a crate. So you can They've got a
service in Australia whereby you click on to I don't

(04:14):
want what it's called fly your pet anyway, So you
go on it and they say next flight leaves this Tuesday,
and it leaves from X and you can save a
lot of money doing this. I mean it's about fifty
thousand dollars to come across the Tasman. But if you
do it another way, say they had to drive from
Sydney up to the Gold Coast because the plane happened
to be driving from the leaving from the Gold Coast,
so they drove to the Gold Coast, threw their dog
on the plane. They got on the plane as well,

(04:35):
flew across the walkland, and then had to drive around
the rest of the country. It's my private jet story
for this morning.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
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Speaker 1 (04:46):
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