The Florida-based company TSH Aviation is today, despite its small size, renowned in the world of air brokerage. Created and managed by Thierry and Béatrice Huguenin, TSH Aviation is one of the most atypical companies on the market. Back on the success of a family flagship.

Less exposed than most brokers on the global market, TSH Aviation is the epitome of a low-key, American-style success story that has always focused on personalized customer relationships rather than on financial challenges. These values have allowed TSH Aviation to weather the many turbulences that have rocked the world of business aviation.

Since its inception, the company relies on a team of two to three people and, paradoxically, this small size is a strong asset that allows it to play the card of personalization and transparency.

Transparency

For more than 25 years, Thierry Huguenin’s company has been organized around the sale, acquisition, rental and management of aircraft. However, Béatrice Huguenin emphasizes the activity “is moving more and more towards the acquisition of aircraft on behalf of owners“. This choice is the result of a reflection on the market itself and a customer / broker relationship based on trust.

Beatrice adds : “it has become impossible today for an owner to acquire his own plane. The complexity of the contracts to be established, the technical expertise required, particularly in terms of maintenance, make it necessary to deal with a professional“.

For TSH aviation, the transaction is completely transparent because “there is no hidden cost for the future buyer, since we are paid by the latter and not by the seller. There is therefore no involvement in sales commissions.

Our challenge is to become more involved with our customers by specializing ourselves in the acquisition sector which, moreover, requires a great expertise on many topics. Even if the acquisition dominates the activity, the company is also expert in the field of sales that are usually made when a customer acquires another aircraft. “We always sell planes to customers who have contacted us for this. But these transactions are made most often when the owner wants to simultaneously acquire another aircraft” says Beatrice, before adding: “We will not seek to detail the various listings of aircraft for sale that exist on the market . This is not our way of working and, given our small size, we do not claim to know all markets either.“

After an acquisition, if an owner needs aircraft management services, TSH aviation is able to advise him and to find the right partner able to offer him the best compromise.

Flexibility remains one of the strengths of the company and the small team always find the resources to meet the demands of many loyal owners who want to deal only with TSH aviation.

From the United States to Europe

Indeed, the company has built its reputation on this bond of unswerving trust which is reinforced year after year. The new contracts signed come from “word of mouth” that many of its competitors in this hyper-competitive sector could envy.

And, paradoxically, while the company is based in the United States, its clientele is mainly made up of Europeans, probably because of the Swiss origins of its managers but also because “this European clientele is more easily prepared to turn to the United States to find through our company the aircraft it is looking for“says Béatrice Huguenin.

This European “culture” coupled with a still active North American market has, so far, been successful at TSH Aviation.

In the 1990s, Thierry Huguenin installed his company in the United States, where the market accounted for 80% of global transactions in the private aviation sector. “Even though the economic environment has shifted, particularly to Asia, it is still an advantage for us to be in the United States because of the importance of the number of contacts we have in all sectors of general business aviation“. Taking advantage of his knowledge of the north american market of business aviation, Thierry Huguenin has become a recognized expert, especially for Bombardier aircraft. So much so that some of the most experienced professionals in the industry are calling on him to know the true value of a Bombardier aircraft on the market.

Ethics, experience and expertise are the three essential words for Beatrice Huguenin. They summarize, by themselves, this small family unit well established in the heart of the largest market in the world.

Not inclined to predict the long term future of the market, the TSH avaition managers are more open to talk about the year 2019. According to them “it will be a positive year with a rather buoyant market, but with particularly slow transactions and decision-making.

In view of its results, TSH Aviation claims even more the family approach that allows it to continue to explore a niche market of “private owner or small companies that allow us to establish personalized contacts, in accordance with one of our essential values: objectivity “