“Above all, luxury in travel is about the world revolving around the needs of the client”

No one knows luxury quite like Clive Jackson, the founder and former CEO of Fly Victor – the premium private jet charter service redefining luxury travel through exceptional, personalised experiences.

We were lucky enough to sit down with Clive to explore what luxury air travel really means, the role of creativity in building luxury experiences and how shifting preferences are reshaping what luxury brands stand for.

TC:
To start off, would you mind telling us a bit about how you founded Victor?

Clive:
My wife and family often describe me as having a relentless obsession with understanding how things work, why they fail, and then becoming determined to fix them. This drive led me to start my first company at the age of 21, a loyalty membership card program for affluent retailers in Kensington. Although it only lasted a few years, it taught me invaluable lessons about market sizing, service pricing, and the essentials of running a profitable business.

Many decades and fourteen companies later, the term serial entrepreneur fits well. In the early 90s, I founded Global Beach, one of the first digital marketing agencies, helping major brands like Bentley Motor Cars and the Financial Times transition to the digital age. My experience of working with many luxury brands helped deepen my understanding of the high-net-worth consumer and their behaviour, and in turn develop effective customer acquisition and retention strategies spanning the digital and in-person engagement.

When I established Victor, I aimed to revolutionise the private jet charter industry with a transparent digital platform and a brand that put the customer at the heart. By openly publishing operator identities and aircraft details, we challenged industry norms and, despite initial scepticism, have maintained strong customer loyalty for over a decade.

TC:
What does luxury in air travel mean to you and your charter customers?

Clive:
I believe there are a few key things that make a luxury air private jet experience. First, everything is designed to fit around your schedule and your agenda. There is no stress of trying to make the 2pm flight from Heathrow fit into your busy day so you can make an 8pm dinner reservation in the converted Michelin three star restaurant just outside Santander. Instead, you fly at the perfect time to make the most of your day and still get to dinner with  little of the risks associated with commercial airline travel.

Second, your cabin revolves exactly around your requirements. If you’re on your way to an important business meeting, you can choose an aircraft configuration that includes a meeting room, if you’re on your way back from a family holiday in the Bahamas, you’ll have separate beds so you can all arrive home refreshed. Whatever it is you need, you can get it.

Third, you can eat whatever you want, taking into account the time of day, your mood, what you’ve been doing and what you’re going to do. The kind of people that fly with Victor are people who aren’t interested in getting a menu when they go to a restaurant  – they want to talk to the chef about what fresh produce has come in that day, and what would suit them at that moment. It’s all about identifying what you want without any drama.

Above all luxury air travel is about the world revolving around your needs. It’s an experience of seamless convenience. It makes moving across continents as easy and effortless as moving from room to room and if you want to stay a few more hours, or bring a couple of friends on board at the last minute – that’s no problem. Luxury is not about money, it’s an attitude – an attitude that nothing is impossible.

TC:
With your extensive experience working with high-net-worth individuals, across categories, what do these people see as creativity’s role and importance in luxury service brands?

Clive:
Creativity in luxury is all about anticipating what clients want and surprising and delighting them with things they hadn’t thought of before – but that also aren’t so far from their tastes that they wouldn’t want to try it.

True luxury brands are able to harness this creativity quite simply because they are the few who have access to the information you need to provide the type of tailored experiences that will meet the expectations of the super rich. This kind of information is only truly gained through contact.

For instance, if you’re a luxury travel planner you need to know your clients well enough to be able to paint a picture of what two weeks of precious down time with family and friends would look like. From the travel to the destination to the accommodation to the activities, every element needs to be inspiring, energising and uplifting to that individual.

For luxury service brands it’s important to remember that money is no object to clients. The key is to create the value in your offer that will captivate and maintain their interest.

TC:
What do you see as top trends or shifts in preferences for luxury to be more meaningful and sustainable?

Clive:
For the nouveau riche with a million or so to spend a year indulging themselves, they occupy a world where they’re not as interested in owning as they are in renting. They want seamless end-to-end experiences. This doesn’t mean owning their own plane anymore, it means  paying for a different plane that meets the needs of each trip they go on so they can get the most out of every experience.

Like I touched on in the previous question, there is also a heightened focus on finding brands and people they can trust and are willing to give access to. Those who are willing to spend time in their company, and will go the extra mile to deliver them the experiences they need without any judgement or agenda.

As for the sustainably conscious. They’re a minority (albeit a growing one), but for those that are, they’re willing to pay for the privilege of living the lifestyle they enjoy. So in terms of private flying that would mean addressing their carbon footprint. The only meaningful way to do that is by using sustainable fuel which comes at an uplift of about 30% on top of what might be a £80,000 one-way charter flight. But some of them are beginning to do that, because if they really do care, they have the money to do it.

Conclusion

It’s clear from talking to Clive that luxury for the richest among us is so much more than material goods, it’s a whole attitude of truly personalised choice.

What this means for brands in this space is that the notion of customer-centric takes on a whole new meaning. You don’t just need to revolve your offering around what they might want, you need the access and intimate knowledge of your clients to give them choices that are already tailored to them, that will already suit their desires and will always please.

We worked with Clive to create the Fly Victor brand – disrupting the private jet charter market and capturing the attitude of the people who travel privately and consider themselves life’s winners.