This fireside chat recap is from FLYING’s “What’s Next in General Aviation” Virtual Event on Wednesday.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: How Icon Aircraft is seeking to help people regain the sense of adventure through creating a modern adventure flying experience.
DETAILS: FLYING CEO Craig Fuller talks with Chris Buchholz about helping new and existing pilots experience that sense of adventure.
SPEAKER: Buchholz is vice president of international sales and business strategy at Icon.
BIO: Prior to Icon, Buchholz was a pioneer in the private jet industry in the Asia Pacific region when that market was in its infancy, leading Hong Kong-based Metrojet as its CEO from 2004 to 2010. During that time, he grew Metrojet from a single aircraft operation into the largest fleet of private jets in Asia Pacific and the world’s second busiest Gulfstream authorized warranty repair facility. Chris is a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and UBS, where he worked on multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions, as well as capital raising.
KEY QUOTES FROM BUCHHOLZ:
“When I grew up with flying, I thought that the highlight would be to get a burger from A to B—and I still do that, and that is fun. But in order to really unleash the sense of adventure, I really feel that Icon has given me something that’s truly amazing that we try to pass on when we find potential customers. And that is the ability to not be limited by having to fly to an airport. So it’s like bush flying in a sense that you can fly to somewhere that has no airport facility whatsoever, but to do so in a way that’s ultra modern, with a beautiful design, and packed with a lot of safety features.”
“A key part of our strategy is to do demonstration flights. More often than not, because it’s so different from flying anything else, people really tend to have a very different perspective of how adventurous their weekend can be if they can actually try it out firsthand and get that really visceral experience of flying an Icon.”
“One of the big lessons in aviation that I have taken away all these years—I’ve been flying for 20 years—is humility. I think as great as aircraft are, we need to stay humble and understand that sometimes the most important decision we say is, ‘You know what? Today’s not the day. Mother Nature is too strong today. I’m just not going to fly today.’”
