International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA) – Business Aviation Services and Value

Tony Kioussis (00:33):
Welcome to another Asset Insight podcast, covering the aircraft ownership life cycle. I am Tony Kioussis, president of Asset Insight and your host.

Tony Kioussis (00:43):
The International Aircraft Dealers Association or IADA, was formed in 1991 as the National Aircraft Resale Association or NARA, when eight of the country’s leading aircraft dealers came together to assure aircraft buyers and sellers of the highest level of ethics, experience, standards and trust. Since then, the organization has grown to be a worldwide association of more than a 100 aircraft dealers, brokers and business aviation product and services companies that do business in over a 100 countries. In 2018, NARA officially changed his name to IADA to reflect its constant presence around the world and international domination of pre-owned aircraft sales.

Tony Kioussis (01:27):
Joining me today to discuss the organization’s capabilities and services as IADA’s executive director, Wayne Starling. Welcome to the program, Wayne, and thank you for taking the time to educate our listeners. Let’s start off with an overview of the organization and how it has evolved over the years.

Wayne Starling (01:46):
Well, as you stated earlier, Tony, the whole concept started with eight dealers around a table and today we’re at over a 114 member companies. It’s made up of 45 dealers, OEMs, six of them, 63 product and service providers. And our growth has been in excess of 40% over the past two years and it’s come mostly from our dealers and OEM groups. In 2019 we introduced the IADA accreditation and certification program, a first in the industry. In fact, it’s the only program that’s accredited or certified in the industry today. And while IADA accredited dealers only make up 7% of all the dealers worldwide, that 7% conducted over 40% of all the business, personal and turboprop jets sold in 2019. Today also, the 114 IADA member companies provide over 351,000 job opportunities around the world. In addition to the growth that the association had, last year, we introduced Aircraft Exchange. And this is an online marketing program available exclusively to IADA members for their lifting of the aircrafts that they have for sale. We also received our 501(c)(3) certification for our IADA foundation. It’s been a busy two year period for us here, Tony.

Tony Kioussis (03:22):
The IADA dealer accreditation program, explain how that benefits aircraft buyers, and sellers.

Wayne Starling (03:30):
When we implemented the accreditation program, the first thing we did was we engaged an independent firm because we thought it was extremely important that the program be managed and the process maintained by a third party to ensure objectivity. The accreditation process ensures strict standard transparency, ethics and professionalism. Once granted the IADA accreditation, a dealer must meet annual requirements and they have to be re-accredited every three years. The process obviously enhances a dealer’s marketing, but also it provides the customers with a high level of confidence that the people that they’re dealing with are at the highest professional standards.

Wayne Starling (04:18):
A good example, I think would be, Tony, if you were looking for a new restaurant. Obviously a new restaurant, you always have concerns over the quality and the service level that you might receive, but in your search, if you saw that they had the Michelin award rating, well automatically your level of confidence goes up tremendously. And the same, I think is here. If a buyer sees that the dealer that they are thinking of working with has met and earned the accreditation standards of IADA, then they’d have a much higher level of trust and confidence that they’d have a good experience working with them.

Tony Kioussis (04:59):
We’ve got accredited dealers, but it doesn’t stop there. IADA also provides a certification for the brokers working for the accredited dealer. Explain how that process works and its value to the business aviation community.

Wayne Starling (05:12):
We implemented the broker certification process, which is currently available to all brokers that work for an accredited IADA dealer. To become a certified broker, they must take and pass a 100 question exam that ensure that they have the knowledge and they have understanding of the critical areas of the transaction process and also maintain and have a high level of skills necessary to conduct the transaction. Again, this is monitored and managed by a third party. They also have an annual requirement of continual education that they must adhere too. And they must re-certify ever three years to ensure they’re staying current on all the key issues.

Wayne Starling (06:00):
I think you and most people would agree if you were working with a person that has met the certifications standards and worked for an accredited IADA, you’d have an increased level of confidence and trust that you receive a good high level of service. I’m not saying that only IADA brokers are skilled and knowledgeable. I know many great brokers in the industry that are not IADA members. It’s just that at IADA, by requiring the accreditation and the certification of each of our members, it just says to the industry and to the aircraft buyers and sellers that there are standards that each of our members have met and we hold them accountable for so There’s that additional level of confidence that it portrays and gives out.

Tony Kioussis (06:47):
I’ve had the opportunity to speak with a few of the brokers that have taken the test and it’s a testament to a IADA as to how difficult they claimed the test was. It was pretty impressive to see them perspire over having to take a test on a subject matter that they are already an expert on. It really says a lot about the IADA testing process. The other thing I want to talk about is what the association calls verified products and services members. What does IADA verify that creates additional value for the industry when dealing with these entities?

Wayne Starling (07:22):
Well, when a company wants to become a product and service member, we review their history at being able to deliver a high quality product. They must obtain sponsorships from existing IADA dealers and from IADA product and service members. It all comes down to their proven ability to bring value and a high level of service to support the dealers and the brokers in all of their transactions and provide a high level of service, not only during the transaction, but ongoing to the aircraft owners.

Tony Kioussis (07:56):
I’d like to talk about the IADA foundation next. I’ve been privileged to chair the IADA scholarship initiative for a number of years and I’m very pleased to see the association expand its philanthropic efforts. Can you talk about all that?

Wayne Starling (08:11):
First of all, I want to publicly thank you for all the time and effort that you’ve put in and continue to put in. You played a key role in helping so many young people benefit from the scholarships from IADA. We are really pleased that we did get our formal certification of the 501(c)(3) and it’s really thanks to a number of people, especially Brian Proctor, Johnny Foster, Brad Harris, all previous chairmen of IADA, along with many other players that played a key role in making the foundation become what it is today.

Wayne Starling (08:47):
The foundation focuses on scholarships, education and philanthropy. While collegiate fellowships are awarded annually, we also will be providing other educational and learning opportunities and leadership opportunities for people in the industry. We plan to work through other organizations like MBAA, for example. In addition to providing scholarships, the foundation has also focused on philanthropy. We decided that we wanted to be there when people needed us. We wanted to be there when people were going through crisis, regardless whether it’s a hurricane, wildfire, earthquake or any other disaster, we want to be able to provide some assistance. All of our members are embracing this focus tremendously and really stepping up and we’re just really, really excited about what the future holds for the foundation.

Tony Kioussis (09:42):
The last thing I’d like you to cover is the association’s online marketplace, aircraftexchange.com. Explain why this is such a powerful and useful tool for aircraft buyers and sellers.

Wayne Starling (09:55):
Yeah, Tony, this is one of the most exciting projects that we’ve undertaken. And we did it because we often heard complaints of online listings at some sites not being legitimate. In some cases, aircraft listings were not real. They might not have a serial number or a tail number or additional information. It seems as though the only objective of the listing was to get a potential buyer to call so they could get an agreement with them and get them under contract to find a aircraft that they were listing for. If you think about this is somewhat dishonest, but it does seem to happen and it doesn’t stop them from doing it. IADA decided that we would undertake the initiative to create a website that ensured integrity, transparency and made it user friendly. A buyer can be assured that each listing is legitimate. All the information is verified and confirmed before it can be listed on the exchange.

Wayne Starling (10:55):
We currently have about 650 exclusive listings on the website. It’s a very intuitive site. Aircraft buyers really appreciate that they can create a personal account, allowing them to create and manage their own private what’s list of aircraft and receive notifications of inventory update. One of the features that is really appreciated by the account holders is a pre-market notification. IADA dealers often sent out pre-market aircraft exclusive to Aircraft Exchange to account holders. And what they do is they give them up to three days before a listing goes public. Therefore it gives potential buyers the opportunity to see aircraft that’s coming to market before they ever get to the market. In other words, they’re getting the first opportunity at new opportunities. With the IADA members involved in 40% plus of the transaction, they’re always on top of what’s going on in the marketplace and they always have the latest information available.

Wayne Starling (12:01):
Additionally, Aircraft Exchange buyers have access to the entire IADA network. Not only can they search for aircraft that they’re interested in buying, they have access to the IADA verified experts to assist in completing the transactions, operating the aircraft or maintaining the aircraft. It’s a pretty exciting project and it’s really beginning to take off and get tremendous viewership.

Tony Kioussis (12:28):
It truly is a great site. And if anyone has not seen it or used it, they really ought to at least go on there and familiarize themselves with aircraftexchange.com. Is there anything else about IADA’s capabilities, services or membership that you feel our listeners need to know?

Wayne Starling (12:46):
One of the things that we’re just getting ready to introduce to our members is the IADA U. And that’s a continual learning program that will be available to members only and it will be a place where all members can go to find updates, to refresh themselves, to hear the latest changes in taxes, laws, about anything you can think of that pertains to our industry. And we’ll be rolling that out over the next 60 days. We’re really excited about that. But also, IADA continues to work to promote professionalism and ethical practices for our industry. The IADA members, they network together and that’s really what makes the association so great. Many times when someone is working with a client, they’ll reach out to two or three other members and get their involvement to help them ensure that the client winds up with the best informed information so they can make the right and best decision.

Wayne Starling (13:53):
If anyone’s interested in hearing more about, or learning more about IADA or how they can become a member, they can go to our website or either they can pick up the phone and give us a call. We’d be more than happy and excited to talk with them.

Tony Kioussis (14:08):
This has been another Asset Insight podcast covering the aircraft ownership life cycle. Please visit our ever growing podcast library at assetinsightpodcast.com and select from any number of topics discussed with business aviation industry experts. This is Tony Kioussis, and as always, thank you for listening.