Light touch helps aviator's ambitions take off

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Light touch helps aviator's ambitions take off
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Success means Soar Aviation founder Neel Khokhani
doesn't get much time in the pilot's seat these
days. Luckily for this 2019 Young Rich Lister,
flying a plane is like riding a bike.
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Financial Review Young Rich List
Neel Khokhani was so busy building up Soar
Aviation, his flying school that is nearing
turnover of 20 million, that the trained pilot
didnt get into the cockpit for four-and-a-half
years. The 30-year-old Financial Review Young
Rich List debutant had finally broken the drought
on the morning he spoke to AFR Magazine, taking
off from Soars Moorabbin base in one of the 67
light sports aircraft it owns. Just did a quick
lap round the Mornington Peninsula and back, 45
minutes. It was a bit windy and bumpy, but its
like riding a bike it all comes back to you
when youre up there, Khokhani says.
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Moving to Australia at 16 from Mumbai to study
for a diploma of airway operations at a college
attached to Sydneys Bankstown Airport, Khokhani
learnt to fly before he could drive. However, in
his nascent entrepreneurial mind he wondered why
he was flying Cessnas and Pipers to get the 150
hours of flight time required for his commercial
pilots licence. There would be me and the
instructor, and as many as six empty seats,
Khokhani recalls. I knew there were these great,
smaller aircraft beginning to come out of Europe
that were much cheaper and much more
efficient.When Khokhani offered free advice on
fleet management to the owner of the flying
school where he worked as an instructor, it
wasnt well received.
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The owner sacked him and suggested he run a
school himself, given he knew so much. So the
then 22-year-old did just that, bankrolling his
first plane by pre-selling flying lessons on the
group buying site Scoopon at a deeply discounted
rate. In less than 24 hours, Khokhani sold
180,000 of vouchers, more than enough to buy the
plane and establish his school. Khokhani picked a
good time to start Soar Aviation, of which he
remains chief executive. Qantas has estimated the
global airline industry needs 790,000 more pilots
in the next 20 years, with one-third of those
required in the Asia-Pacific. Boeing puts the new
pilot need at 640,000 over 20 years, with 40 per
cent in this region.
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Whichever proves right, it all adds up to a
take-off in demand for training. Soar now has
three campuses, at the airports in Moorabbin,
Bendigo and Bankstown, and private equity
investor The Growth Fund bought a half share in
the business last year. Khokhani estimates his
international student base is 20 per cent and
rising, although perhaps his best known was a
local. Alex Kingsford-Smith, great-great-nephew
of the aviation legend, left a job in the
automotive industry to study for his pilots
licence at Soar last year. Light sports aircraft
made by Tecnam, a manufacturer near Naples, have
become a staple of Soars fleet. Unusually for
the aviation industry, the school owns them
outright.
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Reference Link Neel Khokhani

• Neel Khokhani - Flying high, with plenty of
  opportunity
• Neel Khokhani says when your passion comes first,
  your success is crystal-clear
• Fly high with Neel Khokhani and his strategy to
  start an aviation career