When Yeow Meng steps onto a plane, his customers joke that he’s the happiest person onboard. He laughs as he tells that story. He laughs a lot, actually, and so he should. It’s certainly incredible that the son of a vegetable seller and factory worker ever got to fly a plane, let alone run Asia’s leading aviation social networking and private aviation concierge — a multimillion-dollar company offering a one-stop shop to anyone who wants
to take to the skies.
Yeow Meng’s lucky break came when he finished his engineering degree and took up a management trainee post at the General Electric aircraft engine plant in mid-west Ohio, America. With nothing to do in the evenings but stare at cornfields, he decided to fulfil a dream and take flying lessons. They were cheap enough for him to rack up enough hours to earn his pilots licence.
Sadly, once he returned to Asia, however, it was too expensive to continue his wonderful new hobby, so instead, now working in internet technologies, he decided to put his passion into creating a blog and social networking platform, wingsoverasia.com, to try to interact with like-minded people.
He registered the name and admits that initially “I just thought it would be cool if I could become something like a Facebook of the aviation world in Asia and perhaps make some advertising money to sustain my hobby.” However, the blog grew so popular he started organising offline social gatherings and then flying tours and weekend getaways, travelling all over Asia.
“All a customer needs to do is call us up and say: ‘I need to fly to somewhere on this day’.” – Yeow Meng
Flying was — and still is to an extent — such a below-the-radar activity in Singapore, so he started lobbying for better facilities and in 2009 set up an office to support the logistics for private aircraft to fly in and out of Singapore and Malaysia. “From there, things happened very fast. We started getting licences, buying equipment, employing staff, and then we started brokering and delivering aeroplanes.”
Yeow Meng says that in the end his business model was decided mainly by the situation in the Asian market. “Because private aviation is so niche and expensive and infrastructure is so fragmented and lacking in Asia, we had no choice than to take an approach to truly become an integrated service provider. That means if someone is interested in flying or owning their plane, we provide a service that looks after everything — acquisition, training, storage and maintenance.
“We can apply for permits and arrange all the logistics involved in flying from A to B anywhere in the world. We have the in-house expertise and staff to do all of that. All a customer needs to do is call us up and say, ‘I need to fly to somewhere on this day’.” The customer can then turn up and their aircraft is ready to go. For those who don’t fly but still have that passion, Yeow Meng provides what he calls his ‘aviation country club’ where enthusiasts can network, socialise and enjoy a drink.
Currently, Yeow Meng is evolving his company’s forté of offering more advanced airplane technologies and pilot proficiency training with a future plan to expand further into the Asia region, together with his flight concierge services. He also works closely with aircraft manufacturers and suppliers, so that if he sells someone a piece of equipment he can offer good after-sales support as well. It’s clear the red tape and boardrooms are not the most loved parts of his job, but that doesn’t matter.
“You know what I think is most amazing? It’s that I manage to contain my passion for my job,” he laughs. There’s still nothing he loves more than climbing into the cockpit of a plane. “When I’m flying, it’s like all my worry and stress remain on the ground. It’s like a true state of Zen.” WingsOverAsia has a slogan: ‘The passion doesn’t end when you land.’ Looking at its managing director, it’s obvious that’s true.