Last month, ALTEA co-founders Robin Dunlop and Jean Semiramoth spoke to Fayaz Hussain at Corporate Jet Investor about how governments buy business jets, and the role ALTEA plays in that process.

Unlike private buyers, governments buy aircraft for high-stakes missions. They spend taxpayers’ money under constant scrutiny, and they have to balance the needs of several departments at once.

As Dunlop explains: “Quite often Jean and I will go into a meeting and face between 10 and 20 people. There is the Ministry of Finance, there’s the Prime Minister’s office, in some cases there is the Ministry of Defence, and they are all sitting there. They all have their own individual set of requirements… It’s like building a big Venn diagram: what is the central core requirement, and can we all agree on it?”

Semiramoth also points out that the complexity goes well beyond the aircraft itself: “Very often, when it’s an aircraft procurement project for a government, it’s not only about the aircraft, but also about everything else. It’s about the support, the maintenance and the warranties.”

Summing up ALTEA’s role, Semiramoth concludes: “Our job is to educate customers so that they define their budget, or the not-to-exceed price if you prefer, properly.”

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Article courtesy of Corporate Jet Investor.