Working as an aircraft broker can feel like a glamorous profession. Other times, it is decidedly more humble.
By Sarah Talucci’s telling, a recent trip to Greensboro, North Carolina to prepare a 2022 HondaJet for listing was on the latter end of the spectrum.
The trip involved an early-morning flight from Syracuse, New York, several hours of detailing the aircraft’s interior – the small business jet previously carried catered parties – and arranging photography for listing on her company’s website.
“I check to make sure that the equipment list is accurate, make sure that everything in the plane is working and functioning,” she says. “If it’s not, we write it up and make sure that maintenance is taking care of it.”
A deal passing the HondaJet into new hands closed on 12 March, Talucci tells FlightGlobal.
Talucci is the founder and president of 315 Aviation, a New York-based brokerage that specialises in high-end aircraft transactions. The brokerage focuses on “owner-flown aircraft”, from general aviation types to business jets.
“On the lower end, price-wise, I’ll sell Cirrus, and it kind of tops out at… HondaJets and [Embraer] Phenoms,” Talucci says.
Some aircraft are sold weeks after being listed for sale, like the HondaJet, while others – particularly those with an accident history or other perceived blemishes – may take longer to move from inventory, Talucci says.
Much of 315 Aviation’s business is driven by aviation sales platform Controller.com, as well as word-of-mouth referrals from previous customers.
For example, having started the brokerage in October 2022 she was given an early boost when Greensboro-based HondaJet operator Jet It went out of business.
“I was able to pick up a bunch of HondaJets as Jet It was ceasing operations,” she says.
The now-defunct company’s fractional ownership plans meant that each HondaJet had “at least” 10 owners, Talucci says. While she was able to pick up several aircraft for her brokerage, the more lasting benefit was gaining more than 50 future customers.
“Then, all of these customers needed a new aviation solution,” she says. “So, I was able to help a bunch of people step into a new aircraft.”
OPENING EYES
Promoting aviation as a lifestyle and career pathway is a familiar role for Talucci, who has made a mission of exposing people – particularly young women – to possibilities within the industry.
She teaches ground school on a part-time basis, often to groups such as firefighters that need aviation training for emergency-response purposes. And as part of the local chapter of Women in Aviation, which covers much of upstate New York, she works to attract donations and grant funding for scholarships.
Last year, the group handed a total of $5,500 to two local women who are pursuing careers as pilots. Additionally, it hosted two career fairs attended by about 120 young women.
“We had aviation mechanics, we had air traffic controllers, we had engineers, we had pilots, we had airplanes they could climb into,” Talucci says. “I think it’s opening up some opportunities, or at least getting some ideas flowing that they might not have been thinking about otherwise.”
Talucci herself benefited from early exposure to aviation, and recognises that many young women are likely unaware of aviation as an option.
“It was this direct consequence of my grandpa and my dad loving aviation and knowing a lot about the industry,” she says. “If you don’t have someone that’s already kind of connected, or already has some sort of background, it’s very hard to even know where to start.”
Talucci’s grandfather flew as a private pilot, and her father “always loved aviation”, leading to childhood memories such as watching the aerobatic demonstrations of the US Air Force’s Thunderbirds and going to local airports “just to check out planes”.
She took an introductory flight in late high school and “loved it”, leading her to enrol at now-shuttered aeronautics-focused Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire, where she graduated as a certified flight instructor.
Whereas many of her classmates could pick out any aircraft on an airport ramp and recite details about the type, Talucci herself has never identified as an aviation geek.
“I was more interested in the lifestyle of it, of travelling and getting people where they wanted to be,” she says. “It wasn’t about the airplane specifically but more about the culture surrounding it.”
After college, Talucci taught aviation courses at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts before briefly flying passengers with fractional aircraft ownership company PlaneSense, which was her introduction to aircraft sales.
HIGH HURDLES
Even for those aware and interested in aviation careers, obstacles remain in the way of aspiring female aviators.
Take, for example, highly visible tirades against female pilots circulating on social media in response to headline-grabbing accidents, such as the Endeavor Air regional jet that overturned after a fiery landing in Toronto.
The swirl of negative posts prompted Delta Air Lines to issue a statement defending the qualifications of the pilots involved in the accident.
Talucci acknowledges that such a climate may discourage young women from getting involved in the heavily male-dominated industry.
“It’s a notoriously difficult career for women,” she says, “especially if you want to be a mom. Like, how does that fit in? What does this look like for work-life balance or family life? There are a million things… that make it kind of tough, and that type of backlash is obviously not helping.”
Despite years of efforts to get women more engaged, she says, the percentage of airline-rated pilots who are women remains vanishingly small.
“The number hasn’t changed in a very long time,” Talucci says. “So, it’s obvious that there are huge obstacles for women to overcome as ATPs [airline transport pilots] and as professional pilots that are just not being addressed.”
The societal expectation that young people decide on a career by the age of 18 makes early exposure all the more important, she says. “There are so many career opportunities out there people just don’t know about. It’s really just exposure; the only careers you’re thinking of are the careers you know exist.
“Unless you know someone who’s a pilot,” she says, “it’s not really something you’re going to consider.”
Talucci is looking forward to participating in more Women in Aviation events in September – and hopefully encouraging a new generation of women to imagine a high-flying career of their own.
