Building Your Database & Relationships As An Aircraft Broker
Feb 25, 2025Every experienced aircraft broker will tell you the same thing: the database is the business. Aircraft and charter availability change constantly, but relationships with operators, owners, and clients are what produce repeat deals over years. New brokers often underestimate this, focusing on individual transactions while neglecting the contact base that generates them.
Why Your Database Matters More Than Any Single Deal
Charter and sales opportunities are time-sensitive. When a client calls needing an aircraft in six hours, or an owner decides to sell, the broker who gets the business is usually the one already known and trusted — not the one who responds fastest to a cold enquiry.
A well-maintained database means you know which operators have aircraft near your client’s departure point, which owners are considering selling, and which past clients are due to travel again. Without it, every enquiry starts from zero.
Building Operator Relationships
Operators are the supply side of charter brokerage. The quality of those relationships directly affects pricing, availability, and how you’re treated when something goes wrong.
What operators value in a broker:
- Qualified enquiries — requests with real passengers, real dates and a real budget, not speculative price-checking
- Clear, complete trip details the first time, rather than five follow-up messages
- Realistic client expectations — a client who has been properly briefed causes fewer problems on the day
- Prompt payment and clean contracting
- Professional handling when things change — weather, technical issues, and schedule changes are routine; how you handle them is remembered
Brokers who send poorly qualified enquiries get slower responses and worse pricing over time. Operators triage, and they remember who wastes their time.
What to Record About Each Contact
A useful database captures more than names and numbers.
For operators:
- Fleet types and tail numbers
- Base locations — more important than fleet size for repositioning cost
- Certificate status and safety ratings (ARGUS, Wyvern, IS-BAO)
- Which routes and regions they actually serve well
- Typical response time and who to contact directly
For clients:
- Frequent routes and typical passenger counts
- Aircraft preferences and any past dissatisfaction
- Booking behaviour — planned versus last-minute
- Catering, pets, baggage and accessibility requirements
- Who actually approves the booking
- Dates that recur annually
That last point produces more business than most outreach does. A client who flies to the same event every March should hear from you in February.
Using a CRM Properly
Memory and scattered messages do not scale. A CRM — even a simple one — lets you segment contacts, schedule follow-ups, and record preferences so that every interaction builds on the last.
The discipline matters more than the software. A CRM nobody updates is worse than a spreadsheet somebody does.
Practical habits:
- Log the call or message the same day, not at the end of the week
- Record what the client said, not what you concluded
- Set the next follow-up before closing the record
- Note why a deal didn’t close — that pattern is worth reviewing quarterly
Staying in Contact Without Being a Nuisance
The most common follow-up mistake is contacting people with nothing to say. “Just checking in” adds no value and trains contacts to ignore you.
Reasons worth making contact:
- An aircraft matching their stated requirement has come to market
- Pricing or availability on a route they use has changed
- A relevant regulatory or operational change affects them
- A date they travel annually is approaching
- You said you would follow up, and you are doing so
Before sending anything, ask what the recipient gains from reading it. If the answer is nothing, don’t send it.
Relationships With Other Brokers
Other brokers are not purely competitors. Co-broking is common, and a broker with a client but no suitable aircraft — or the reverse — is a source of business rather than a rival.
What makes those relationships work is straightforward: honour agreed commission splits, don’t circumvent, and don’t approach the other broker’s client afterwards. The industry is small and reputation travels quickly.
Learn the Full Process
Client acquisition and relationship management are covered in depth in our Finding Your Clients Masterclass, and operator sourcing in Mastering Avinode. The Aircraft Charter Broker Course and Aircraft Sales Broker Course cover the full transaction process.
Compare the certification tracks or schedule a free consultation.
FAQ
What CRM should an aircraft broker use?
The specific tool matters less than consistent use. What matters is that it records preferences, history and follow-up dates, and that you update it after every interaction.
How often should I contact operators I haven't worked with recently?
When you have a genuine enquiry, or genuinely useful information. Regular contact with nothing to say is worse than occasional contact with something relevant.
Do I need existing industry contacts to start?
No, but you need to build them deliberately from the beginning. See how aircraft brokers find clients.
Is co-broking with competitors a good idea?
Frequently, yes. It converts deals you couldn't otherwise serve. It depends entirely on both parties honouring commission agreements and not circumventing each other.
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