August Aviation, an on-demand air charter broker, has namesd John Gabriel as Director of Safety and Compliance.
“We aim to be disrupters in the industry,” says Ryan Hall, CEO of Aviation. “August Aviation has always viewed quality and safety – as a pillar in our operations, which differentiates us in the brokerage space. John’s expertise in safety and experience in aviation operations builds upon what saw as a key competitive advantage over our peers when we began August Aviation in 2020.”
Gabriel is an Airline Transport rated pilot and is current in Gulfstream and Dassault Falcon aircraft. His aviation experience began in FAR Part 135 operations and has since been operating under FAR Part 91 for private and corporate flight departments. His background in safety includes roles as Safety Officer and Aviation Safety Action Program Manager. Gabriel fully embraces a safety-first culture and explains how he cultivated his strong commitment for aviation safety. “It started in college,” he says. “There was an Aviation Safety course which included studying landmark aviation accidents and taught the fundamentals of SMS. I found it fascinating and kept working to apply what I had learned and have always acted as a steward of safety and risk mitigation throughout my career.”
Gabriel believes that the current state of the aviation industry necessitates a higher awareness for operational safety: “There is significant volatility in today’s private aviation industry due to factors like workforce shortages and record levels of demand,” he says. “These factors are creating a high stress, high pressure environment that increase risk and have the risk to degrade safety. At August Aviation, we fully embrace the tenets of SMS, risk mitigation and continuous improvement and apply them to our brokering process. We find that we can significantly reduce potential risk at the beginning of the charter process by identifying potential hazards and then insist on a strong commitment to safety from our operators. This process not only achieves a higher level of risk mitigation, but also gives our clients peace of mind that we’re looking out for them throughout the entire process. That’s the August Aviation advantage.”