Start An Airline - Business Ideas

Updated: September 15th, 2022
Start An Airline

Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive.

Starting an airline requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.

If you're interested in how to sell air transport services, or selling air transport services online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.

Key Stats

market size
$686B
starting costs
$18.3K
gross margin
10%
time to build
720 days

Startup Costs

Min Startup Costs Max Startup Costs

Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$252

Business Formation Fees

$600

$5,400

Equipment & Supply Expenses

$63

$700

Vehicle Expenses

$2

$10,004

Retail Business Expenses

$0

$3,150

Inventory Expenses

$0

$5,000

Training & Education Expenses

$0

$2,000

Website Costs

$13

$215

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$2,486

Software Expenses

$0

$225

Successful Businesses

Business URL Rank

Jobs at American Airlines

jobs.aa.com

1,544

Gift Cards

giftcards.aa.com

1,548

DELTA

delta.com

1,656

Southwest Airlines

espanol.southwest.com

1,742

Southwest

southwest.com

1,742

United Airlines

united.com

1,820

IndiGo

goindigo.in

4,067

Bruce Drum (AirlinersGallery.com)

airlinersgallery.smugmug.com

4,337

JetBlue

jetblue.com

6,322

FlightAware

flightaware.com

6,450

Alaska Air

alaskaair.com

7,127

Pros & Cons

Pros Description

Rewarding work

Starting a airline can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

Gain exposure and experience

This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you!

Daily physical activity

Airline's typically involve a much greater degree of movement than other lines of work. Most days, you will spend your day walking, running errands for your business, and performing a multitude of tasks. This can have a positive impact on energy levels and your overall health.

Face to face interaction

If you are the type of individual that thrives on human interaction, then this is the business for you! With a airline, you will be hands-on with customers and or employees every day.

Strong Demand & Relatively Recession Proof

The demand for airline is increasing year over year and the business is known to be relatively recession proof.

Cons Description

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Security Issues

With any Saas business, data loss and security issues may arise throughout your process of building your product. It's critical that you understand exactly what you're responsible for and how to avoid potential issues down the road.

Low margins

The gross margins for your airline are typically around 10%, which can make it more challenging to incur new expenses and maintain profitability.

High employee turnover

In the airline, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment.

Lack of benefits

With a airline, you are typically self-employed and responsible for finding your own insurance, which can be quite costly and time-consuming.

Isolation

Often times, as a airline, you typically work alone and do not have much face-to-face interaction with other team members.

Marketing Ideas

  • 1

    Direct Sales

    Direct sales strategy implies a direct contact between a seller and a consumer without the involvement of any third party. Direct selling is popular in sectors where sellers communicate with their clientele personally. The sales technique occurs at non-store locations which include at home, work, or online.

    For direct selling to succeed, hire a few (or many) salespeople to support the sales conversion process. It's critical that you assign them specific roles and responsibilities to nurture the client and provide excellent support.

    Learn more about direct sales ➜

  • 2

    Word of mouth

    Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.

    Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.

    According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.

    Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.

    Learn more about word of mouth ➜

  • 3

    Partnerships

    A partnership is a formal agreement between two or more entities to oversee business operations and share profits and liabilities.

    Creating strategic partnerships with an existing business can be a huge win for a startup.

    This is considering that a partnership creates a new slate of future options for your startup.

    On the other side, pursuit of partnerships could suck up a ton of time, and bunch of resources, and fail to materialize.

    Therefore, entrepreneurs need to do proper research and evaluate the possibilities of achieving success through partnerships.

    Learn more about partnerships ➜