Vilma Vaitiekunaite, Vice President Passenger – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at Chapman Freeborn: 'Saudi Arabia will become one of the major global business aviation markets'

Vilma Vaitiekunaite, a Lithuanian aviation executive, currently serving as Vice President Passenger – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at Chapman Freeborn, part of global Avia Solutions Group, is convinced that Saudi Arabia is no longer only an oil story. “It’s becoming a global business, tourism, entertainment, and investment hub. And private aviation naturally follows economic transformation. Saudi Arabia will become one of the major global business aviation markets. I genuinely believe that,” she says.

You’ve spent over two decades in aviation, what pivotal moment shaped your trajectory the most?

I grew up on a military airbase, so aviation was never something abstract to me. Aircraft noise was normal childhood background music. My father was passionate about aviation, and I think somewhere there the “virus” started. But the real turning point came much later, when I understood that aviation is not really about aircraft — it’s about people, pressure, responsibility, and trust.

One of the moments that shaped me the most was handling major operational and communications crises. Aviation has a brutal way of teaching your priorities. When something goes wrong at 3AM across three time zones, nobody cares about titles, ego, or polished presentations. They care whether you can solve the problem calmly and fast.

Working at Avia Solutions Group as Chief Communications Officer during periods of enormous growth exposed me to almost every corner of aviation — ACMI, cargo, business aviation, MRO, crisis management, geopolitics, regulatory issues. You quickly learn that this industry rewards resilience, not glamour. That probably shaped me more than anything else.

What does your role as VP Passenger in Saudi Arabia involve on a day-to-day level?

Saudi Arabia’s business aviation market is no longer just a luxury segment - it’s infrastructure for the country’s economic transformation. You can see that directly in the numbers. In 2024 alone, business jet movements surpassed 23,600 flights, up roughly 24% year-on-year, which is exceptional growth for this industry. But the really interesting story is where that growth is happening and what it says about the future of the Kingdom.

Traditionally, Saudi business aviation was heavily weighted toward international movements - Europe, London, Geneva, Paris, the U.S., and regional GCC traffic. But the giga-project era is fundamentally changing the market structure. Projects like NEOM, The Red Sea Project, Diriyah Gate, and Qiddiya are creating entirely new domestic aviation corridors.

What’s fascinating is that domestic business jet traffic is now growing faster than international traffic. Domestic movements increased by roughly 26%, compared to around 15% internationally. That tells you the market is evolving from a traditional outbound wealth market into a highly active internal business mobility network. Executives, investors, project teams, government stakeholders, and international partners are moving constantly between Riyadh, Jeddah, NEOM, the Red Sea coast, and the Eastern Province. Riyadh especially is becoming the command center of that movement.

From a passenger operations perspective, that changes everything. The expectation today is not simply luxury — it’s speed, flexibility, and connectivity between emerging economic zones. Business aviation becomes a productivity tool. A CEO can attend meetings in Riyadh, inspect a project site in NEOM, and be back the same evening. That operational efficiency is becoming critical as the Kingdom accelerates development timelines across multiple mega-projects simultaneously.

The forecast is what really captures people’s attention. Saudi Arabia’s aviation authorities are targeting a dramatic expansion of the sector by 2030, including dedicated business aviation airports and terminals, with ambitions to grow annual business flight activity several times over current levels. So what we’re seeing now is still the early stage of the curve.

I think many people outside the region still underestimate how large this market could become. Saudi Arabia has the geography, capital concentration, infrastructure investment, and government support to become the dominant business aviation hub in the Middle East. And unlike some mature markets globally, this growth is being built almost from scratch around new cities, new industries, and entirely new travel patterns. That’s what makes it such a unique moment to be part of the industry.

Having worked across Europe and now the Middle East, what key differences do you see in the private aviation market?

Europe and Saudi Arabia are both mature private aviation markets, but they are mature in very different ways. Europe is mature in the sense that it is highly structured, transparent, and optimized. You have dense airport networks, established charter regulation, a large broker ecosystem, and a very visible operating environment. The market is easy to measure. Saudi Arabia is different. It is not a new market - aviation has been part of the Kingdom’s leadership culture since the earliest days of modern Saudi aviation. King Abdulaziz’s Dakota flight in 1945 is often seen as the beginning of civil aviation in the Kingdom, and from that point aviation became a practical tool for connecting a vast country, not just a luxury symbol. 

The key difference is that Saudi Arabia has always been a privacy-first market. The users are there, the aircraft are there, the demand is there - but much of it has historically been private, relationship-led, and less visible to outside observers. So when people say the Saudi market is ‘emerging,’ I think that is inaccurate. What is emerging is not the demand itself, but the infrastructure, regulation, and public visibility around it.

The data shows that clearly. In 2024, Saudi business jet movements grew up 24% from 2023. Domestic business jet flights grew 26%, while international movements grew 15% to. That tells you something important: the international private jet culture was already strong, but the new growth is increasingly domestic. 

That is where Saudi Arabia is becoming very different from Europe. In Europe, a lot of private aviation is cross-border by nature - London to Geneva, Paris to Nice, Milan to Ibiza. In Saudi Arabia, the geography is different. The country is huge enough that domestic sectors can be longer than many European international flights. Riyadh to NEOM, Jeddah to the Eastern Province, Riyadh to AlUla or the Red Sea, these are real business aviation routes, not short hops.

Vision 2030 and the giga-projects are accelerating that shift. Business aviation is becoming a productivity tool for moving decision-makers between new economic zones. The forecast is also very significant. GACA’s roadmap targets a tenfold increase in the general aviation sector’s GDP contribution to $2 billion by 2030, supported by six new general aviation airports and nine additional general aviation terminals. Deep existing demand plus rapid national transformation, is what makes Saudi Arabia one of the most interesting private aviation markets in the world today.

How has Saudi Arabia’s rapid growth changed the demand for private charter services?

Massively.

Saudi Arabia is no longer only an oil story. It’s becoming a global business, tourism, entertainment, and investment hub. And private aviation naturally follows economic transformation.

The demand growth comes from several directions simultaneously: inbound investors, giga-project development teams, sports and entertainment movements, government travel, royal movements, medical flights, and increasingly sophisticated local private aviation users.

You can clearly see that acceleration during major events. During Future Investment Initiative, Riyadh now sees around 300 private jet arrivals linked to the summit ecosystem alone. That puts the city into the same category as major global business aviation peaks like Davos or Monaco during flagship events.

 What’s particularly interesting is that domestic business jet activity is now growing faster than international traffic. That reflects how Vision 2030 is reshaping movement patterns inside the Kingdom itself.

Saudi Arabia is probably one of the few places globally where private aviation growth still feels like the beginning rather than saturation

Many assume private jets are only about luxury, what’s the real business case behind chartering versus owning?

Private aviation is fundamentally a productivity tool, not a champagne accessory. For many businesses, chartering allows executives to visit multiple destinations in one day, access airports airlines don’t serve, protect confidentiality, reduce overnight stays, and maintain flexibility when plans change. In industries where decisions move fast, time literally becomes money.

People often compare private jets to first class. That’s the wrong comparison. The real comparison is time, access, flexibility, and operational efficiency. For those flying 400 hours a year, this translates to saving 800 to 2,000 hours annually, equivalent to up to 2.5 months of extra time each year. Ownership itself only makes sense for a relatively small percentage of users. Aircraft ownership is complex: acquisition costs, crew, maintenance, insurance, hangarage, depreciation, operational management. Many clients realize chartering provides flexibility without the burden. Purchasing a private jet involves an upfront cost ranging from $3 million for a small jet to over $100 million for long-range models, along with annual maintenance, crew salaries, insurance, and hangar fees that can total $700,000–$4 million annually. Chartering, on the other hand, avoids these ownership costs, with typical hourly rates between $2,000 and $15,000 depending on the aircraft type and destination. Aircraft depreciate significantly over time, often losing 10-15% of their value annually. Owners must also contend with reduced resale values, making ownership less attractive as an investment. At Chapman Freeborn and previously at Skyllence, we often advised clients very honestly that they actually do not need an aircraft. They need access to the right aircraft at the right time.

Sometimes the smartest luxury is not owning the headache. 

 What are the biggest misconceptions people have about private aviation?

That it’s glamorous all the time.

People see Instagram. We see permits at 2AM, crew legality issues, geopolitical airspace closures, slot negotiations, technical diversions, delayed catering trucks, weather alternates, security risks, and operational contingency planning.

Another misconception is that private aviation is always about celebrities. In reality, a huge percentage of business aviation clients are corporate executives, government officials, medical patients, engineers, sports teams, and specialists traveling to places commercial aviation simply cannot support efficiently.

And surprisingly, many people underestimate how operationally demanding this industry is. A successful charter broker is not someone who posts jet selfies. It’s someone who can quietly solve problems clients never even notice happened.

How do you manage ultra-high-net-worth clients who expect perfection every single time?

First — by understanding that perfection does not exist in aviation. What exists is preparation, experience, transparency, and recovery capability.

Ultra-high-net-worth clients usually value three things above everything: trust, discretion, and responsiveness. Many of them operate globally and are used to high standards everywhere. They don’t want excuses. They want solutions.

The key is anticipation. If you wait for a client to identify a problem, you are already late.

Sometimes managing these clients is almost psychological. You must understand personalities, habits, sensitivities, travel routines, security concerns, family dynamics, even small preferences that make them comfortable.

And honestly, humility matters. Aviation has a way of punishing arrogance very quickly.

What goes into planning a complex, last-minute charter request?

Everything. Simultaneously.

People think you simply “book a jet.” In reality, a last-minute international charter can involve aircraft sourcing, crew legality calculations, overflight permits, landing permits, airport slots, handling arrangements, catering, security coordination, customs planning, fuel strategy, weather assessments, parking limitations, passenger documentation, and contingency planning - often under impossible timelines.

And then reality enters the room.

Maybe the preferred aircraft becomes unavailable. Maybe permits are delayed. Maybe weather closes an alternate airport. Maybe geopolitical developments suddenly affect routing.

That’s where experience matters. The industry rewards calm people with good networks and operational imagination.

Your company doesn’t just move people, it also transports animals. What kinds of animals are we talking about?

Almost everything imaginable, animal transportation is a very specialized operation. We’re talking about horses, zoo animals, breeding livestock, exotic animals, falcons, pets, and occasionally extremely rare species, even big sea creatures requiring highly controlled conditions.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region have a particularly strong equestrian culture, so horse transportation is a major segment. These operations are incredibly sophisticated - almost like flying elite athletes.

Animals don’t understand aviation schedules or operational delays, so planning standards are extremely high.

What is the most unusual or challenging animal transport you’ve handled?

Without going into confidential details, some of the most challenging projects involve highly sensitive exotic animal relocations where veterinary coordination, climate control, permits, quarantine requirements, and routing become extraordinarily complex.

Transporting valuable horses is also far more demanding than most people imagine. These animals can be worth millions, and they are treated accordingly. Specialized grooms travel with them, stress levels are monitored, loading procedures are highly controlled, and every detail matters.

People joke that some horses fly better than humans. Honestly… sometimes true.

Are there emotional or ethical challenges involved when transporting animals, especially rare or valuable ones?

Absolutely.

Animal transport carries enormous responsibility. Ethical standards, welfare conditions, veterinary supervision, documentation compliance - these are not optional details.

There are also emotional aspects. Sometimes animals are relocated due to conservation programs, emergencies, geopolitical instability, or medical necessity. You understand quickly that you are not moving cargo. You are moving living beings dependent entirely on human decisions.

The industry has evolved enormously in animal welfare standards, and rightly so.

Without naming names, what’s the most complex celebrity or VIP movement you’ve managed?

Usually the most complex movements are not the most famous ones publicly, but global music tours are our “orchestra playing the most impressive aria of the opera” if I can express myself this way (smiles).

The truly difficult operations often involve multiple countries, security sensitivities, changing schedules, media avoidance, family members, support staff, cargo, and simultaneous operational secrecy.

I’ve worked on movements where routes changed multiple times during the same day due to security considerations or political developments. You learn quickly that flexibility is everything.

And ironically, the smoother it looks publicly, the harder people behind the scenes probably worked.

How do you balance privacy, security, and logistics for high-profile clients?

Discretion is fundamental in private aviation. Not a luxury - a requirement.

High-profile clients expect information control at every stage: passenger data, airport handling, crew awareness, routing confidentiality, terminal coordination, transport on the ground.

At the same time, security cannot compromise operational efficiency. So the balance comes from experience, trusted partners, and disciplined processes.

The best compliment in our industry is often silence. If nobody heard about the movement, everything probably went perfectly.

As a former CEO and now a regional VP, how has your leadership style evolved?

I became much calmer.

Earlier in my career, I probably believed leaders needed to control everything personally. Aviation cures that illusion quickly. You learn that strong teams outperform strong individuals every time.

Today I focus much more on creating ownership, accountability, and trust within teams. I also became far more direct. In aviation, unclear communication creates expensive mistakes.

And honestly, crises change leaders. After enough operational emergencies, you stop dramatizing smaller problems. You learn priorities very fast.

What does “exceptional customer experience” really mean in private aviation today?

It means reducing friction completely. Clients today are not impressed simply because an aircraft is luxurious. Luxury became expected. What they truly value is seamlessness.

Exceptional service means understanding the mission before the client fully explains it. It means proactive communication, intelligent problem-solving, operational precision, flexibility, and emotional intelligence. Sometimes the best customer experience is actually invisible. The client never sees the problems you solved behind the scenes.

What advice would you give young professionals, especially women, looking to enter aviation or luxury services?

First - enter because you genuinely love the industry, not the aesthetics around it.

Aviation can be incredibly rewarding, but it is demanding, stressful, operationally brutal at times, and very unforgiving toward superficiality.

Second, build competence, not image. Knowledge creates confidence. Learn operations. Learn finance. Learn crisis management. Learn people.

And especially for women: do not try to imitate leadership styles that are not authentic to you. Competence speaks loudly enough on its own.

Also - resilience matters. Aviation will humble everybody equally.

Where do you see private aviation heading in the next 5–10 years, especially in Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia will become one of the major global business aviation markets. I genuinely believe that.

The scale of transformation happening under Vision 2030 is extraordinary. Infrastructure investment, tourism growth, giga-projects, sports, entertainment, business travel — all of these drive aviation demand naturally.

Operationally, I think we will also see smarter use of data, more personalization, stronger digital integration, sustainability pressure, and continued fleet modernization.

But interestingly, despite all technology evolution, private aviation will remain deeply relationship-driven. Trust will still matter more than apps.

Your operations also include repatriation flights from conflict or crisis zones – how do these missions typically come together under such pressure?

Very fast. Usually faster than anyone would ideally want. Repatriation and humanitarian missions are probably the most difficult operations - operationally, emotionally, and physically.They often begin with incomplete information, rapidly changing security conditions, unclear airport situations, airspace uncertainty, enormous pressure from families, officials, or corporations trying to bring people home safely, and sometimes genuine danger on the ground. In those situations, everything happens simultaneously. You may need to source aircraft immediately, secure permits overnight or even faster, coordinate diplomatic clearances, assess operational and security risks in real time, arrange handling in unstable environments, and continuously rebuild the plan as conditions evolve hour by hour. And unlike normal operations, there is rarely a comfortable timeline. Often teams stay awake for days. You operate under stress, uncertainty, and constant pressure because people are depending on you in very real ways.

What makes these missions especially challenging is that aviation suddenly stops feeling transactional. It becomes deeply human. You are not simply moving passengers anymore - you are reuniting families, evacuating people from crisis and war zones, helping injured passengers, supporting humanitarian efforts, or bringing people home during some of the worst moments of their lives. Emotionally, those flights stay with you. But strangely, despite being the most exhausting missions physically and mentally, they are also the most meaningful. Seeing families reuniting, seeing relief, tears, and gratitude when people finally arrive safely - those moments remind you why this industry matters beyond aircraft and logistics. Honestly, those are the operations I’m most proud of. Because in the end, that feeling of purpose is the greatest reward aviation can give you.

What are the biggest operational and emotional challenges in organizing evacuations from high-risk regions?

Operationally, unpredictability. Airspace closures, changing security conditions, airport congestion, permit uncertainty, communication breakdowns, lack of reliable information. Everything becomes fluid.

Emotionally, the human side is extremely difficult. People being evacuated are often frightened, exhausted, separated from families, or leaving dangerous environments behind. And your own teams are operating under pressure too with no rest for days and sleepless nights until it’s done. One thing people rarely see is how emotionally invested aviation professionals become during these missions. We try to stay calm externally, but internally everybody understands the stakes are real.