Originally Posted by CitationJason
Hey guys, I've got a question. It is my dream to someday (maybe) start my own Part 135 operation. I would want to do passenger operations, freight, eventually a flight school, and maybe even a fractional deal tied in with some owners looking to buy into a plane and a ranch or condo in the mountains, etc. These are all really big dreams, and it would start a lot smaller. I basically want to get started with the passenger operation. I am only 23 years old, but I want to start planning now. So my questions are as follows:
1. How do you go about obtaining a Part 135 certificate?
2. How do you create your Ops Specs?
3. How do you determine aircraft operating costs?
4. What else am I forgetting?
Despite my young age, I have some large project management and business management experience, and I have my aviation knowledge, but I want to do this with the proper planning, which I think has to start now. Any advice will be greatly appreciative. Don't try and talk me out of it, but don't be afraid to warn of pitfalls and share all experiences, even the negative ones.
Sncerely,
CitationJason
My advice to you is find a team of people who know about business even if you do. Investors like to see a team of people not just one person. If you are looking for your market may I suggest the following route. Go to
www.questionpro.com You create a survey then send it out to your target market. Now you can gather e-mails yourself or what I did was go to
www.exmmarketing.com They will send several hundred thousand e-mails to your target market and guarentee a 30% view rate. Then you typically find a three to four percent return. Its pretty good stuff and questionpro puts it into the statiscal data. I would reccomend business plan pro for the business plan pro portion. Its really good, it puts it into graphs and flow charts for investors to see.
I am running a business plan for a start up airline. Can't say where, I am now legally bound not to reveal any info yet. I have a mgt team together and we are preparing our financials and getting ready to present to investors. If get the capital behind us we are going to try it. It started as a school project for college and it got interesting so I figured I would gather up people that know about financials and marketing and we are putting together a decent business plan. I too am young 21yrs old and I could never do it on my own. I really don't know too much about business but, I am trying to surround myself with people that know what they are doing. Its a long time consuming process esspecially 121 certification. I have got a company
www.aircarriercertification.com Talk to Jim McCoy he is a good guy. They are great once you get the financing behind you they will set up your company and train your MGT staff and write the company manuals. For 121 cert it is around 600k to 1.5mil. So definitly expect less for a 135 cert. Good luck any more questions just ask.