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Mathew Fernandez

Flight Club started when our co-founder Mathew bought an airplane. Like most pilots Mat wanted to fly as often as possible, so he looked to reduce his cost of ownership. After posting an advertisement selling block time, Mat received 70 responses in 48 hours. While working through the logistics of selling block time Mat quickly realized the current process was so inefficient. He set up a google calendar, created excel sheets to track blocks, and monitored his account for incoming email transfers.

Mat thought “there has to be a better way,” but before he got too far ahead of himself he wanted to know was an Airbnb type of business for airplanes even legal?

A meeting was scheduled with YYZ law in Toronto. Little did Mat know…he was not only getting a legal opinion but another co-founder.

Flight Club has expanded quickly from humble beginnings in 2019 to a diverse team of dedicated people focused on creating solutions to make flying more accessible. Flight Club is built by pilots for pilots, and the goal is to ensure that an airplane never ever becomes a hanger queen again.

Share the cost of your airplane, reduce maintenance expenses, and enable pilots to fly closer to home for less. Join us on our mission to make aviation more accessible for everyone.

Tell us about yourself?

Mathew is the Co-founder and CEO of Flight Club. He has extensive experience leading large-scale events and teams.

Previously Mathew worked in the Health Care sector leading branches in the Greater Toronto Area. Currently, Mathew is a Lieutenant in the Canadian Armed forces and a gliding instructor. He is also the VP of finance with AERO, Canada’s first aviation disaster response not-for-profit.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

As a startup taking the leap of going full-time is always a terrifying step. If I could go back in time two years, I would have taken this leap sooner.

What problem does your business solve?

Aviation is an inherently expensive industry to enter. We reduce costs for both pilots and aircraft owners by helping both parties reduce costs and eliminate barriers to entry.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

The business started based on a need that I had. There was no solution that is all-encompassing to do invoicing, payment processing and scheduling. As a result, we built a platform that solves any issue an airplane owner could have. We track maintenance, track pilot flights, and integrate invoicing and payments as well as scheduling.

What is your magic sauce?

Currently, the competition only offers calendar functionality; by providing a full solution to our customers at low to no cost we are quickly becoming market leaders in the aircraft scheduling arena.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

We plan to expand into the US market, offer aircraft financing, escrow services to general aviation, aircraft sales, and support, as well as an insurance solution for members.

Our vision is to integrate anything a pilot or aircraft owner could need into one easy-to-use platform.

Longer term we plan to offer charter flights and VTOL taxi services as well as facilitate the electrification of aviation across the world.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The biggest challenge has been finding enough aircraft for the pilots that want to fly them. Each week 100’s of new pilots join the platform and a few new owner-listings.

We have started to focus on onboarding clubs and owners.

How can people get involved?

If you are an Aviation Club or partnership that needs a free all-encompassing aviation scheduling platform reach out at team@flightclub.life or 1-855-489-3593.

We would be happy to provide you with a demo and see if we are able to meet the needs of your club/group.