ACAM PROFILE AIRCRAFT MANAGEMENT
‘On a rocket ride to the West’
Satisfied clients are the main motivation for Darren Broderick, CEO at Asian Corporate Aviation Management. Words: Rob Hodgetts
During the past 12 months, ACAM has acquired an AOC in Australia, opened ACAM Middle East and acquired a company in Germany.
ACAM PROFILE AIRCRAFT MANAGEMENT
‘On a rocket ride to the West’
Satisfied clients are the main motivation for Darren Broderick, CEO at Asian Corporate Aviation Management. Words: Rob Hodgetts
During the past 12 months, ACAM has acquired an AOC in Australia, opened ACAM Middle East and acquired a company in Germany.
HE’S AN AVIATOR to the core with 18,000 hours and a rescue award but Darren Broderick has put his flying career on hold to take ACAM on a “rocket ride” towards the West.
The Australian has built Asian Corporate Aviation Management into the largest private full-service corporate jet management company in southeast Asia.
And he’s done that with no website and limited social media presence, driven entirely by “reputation and referrals from clients”.
“Our strengths have always been in our bespoke hands-on management of our airplanes and our reputation has grown outside of the region now,” he tells CJI.
“In the last 12 months we’ve had phenomenal growth, we’ve acquired an AOC in Australia and we have ACAM Pacific in both Melbourne and Sydney. We’ve opened ACAM Middle East, we’ve just acquired a company in Germany and within the next quarter we’ll have at least one, likely two, aircraft into the UK.
“So we’re continuing to move towards the West but I think we’ll stop at the UK for now.”
He adds: “The expansion of the last 12 months has been the biggest rocket ride we’ve had, but we achieved our goal as the largest private corporate aviation management business in Asia Pacific. We have the highest fleet number for a private company – there are others that claim their fleets are bigger but that’s OK.
“The global fleet is now 40-plus which is quite unprecedented, and it’s all been done by reputation, relationships and a lot of bloody hard work, and blood, sweat and tears.”
“It’s all been done by reputation, relationships and a lot of bloody hard work, and blood, sweat and tears …”
The 58-year-old Broderick, who divides his time between home in Jakarta, Indonesia and head office at Seletar Airport in Singapore, set up ACAM 15 years ago to operate in Singapore and the neighbouring ASEAN countries but has seized on opportunities to expand along the way.
Owning the company gives Broderick and his “small but effective” management team the agility to “make a decision on the spot and go for it” without the need to go through layers of management or authorisation from a “big brother”.
“The time to grow was post Covid. We saw the opportunities and we basically just went for them,” he says.
“Our product is unique and different to competitors, so it fits in well. For example, the Pacific market is dominated by three management companies that have essentially a cookie-cutter type agreement that doesn’t vary whereas we go in and say, ‘Can’.
“As long as it’s compliant with our operations manuals and our safety management system then we get the job done. One of the most important things to remember is it’s their aircraft not ours. We just have the privilege of operating the aircraft on their behalf.”
Broderick’s big focus is on India. On a recent trip he completed a deal for the sale and management of a new aircraft and “maybe more”.
“India’s GDP is amazing. It’s got a growing population of UHNWI, probably the fastest growing on the planet today, per capita, so it’s an obvious focus,” he says. “They’ve expanded the infrastructure in India to build a bunch of new airports and they have more on the plan so it’s really opening up.
“India has its restrictions of course, but nevertheless it’s a huge market for corporate aviation, no doubt about it, both in terms of sales and management opportunities.”
China was the “huge thing”, but that’s “well and truly changed” says Broderick, who instead sees “a lot of growth” in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Lao and Indonesia.
“The market is still quite dynamic although there was definitely a marked slowdown in the last quarter of 2023. But the number of jets coming in over the next 12-18 months is actually quite staggering, both new and pre-owned aircraft,” he says.
Broderick is also noticing a new rung of clients joining the market.
“The previous generation are handing over to the younger generation, guys in their 30s and early 40s,” he says. “Where perhaps their fathers were a bit conservative in acquiring a private jet, the younger guys are a lot more savvy and are tending to see the value in terms of time saving and the convenience of owning a private jet.”
And it’s the younger generation who have finally convinced him to develop a digital presence. (He did once have a website but took it down as he didn’t like the “verbiage”.)
“I’ve known a lot of these guys since they were kids, they call me uncle,” he says.
“Uncle Darren, when are you going to do a website because I have a friend whose dad has a jet and I told him to bring it to you and he looked you up on the internet and couldn’t find anything?”
Broderick began his aviation career when he was still at school in Adelaide, South Australia, training as a fixed-wing pilot and passing his commercial licence just after his 18th birthday before adding his helicopter licence four weeks later.
He then flew both airplanes and helicopters as a bush pilot in the outback in Australia before joining an aviation business back in Adelaide. After a year the company sent him to work in southeast Asia and he found his “niche”. “That was 40 years ago and I never went back,” he says.
“We launched into the middle of the typhoon and it was an interesting flight …”
Cabin comforts: The younger generation really appreciate the time saving and convenience of owning a private jet, says Darren Broderick.
Broderick spent many years flying and instructing before taking on senior management roles such as chief pilot and chief of training.
In 2000, as the pilot in command of a Sikorsky S76 helicopter he was awarded a Sikorsky Winged S Rescue Award for the recovery of a badly injured crewman from an oil rig in the south of the Philippines.
“There was a typhoon coming through and there was an offshore support vessel supporting an oil rig in the very south that had hit some massive waves which injured one of the seamen very severely – he had head injuries and would have passed away if we hadn’t got to him that night,” he says.
“We launched into the middle of the typhoon and it was an interesting flight, to say the least, of about three hours to get down there from Manila. I had to land on one floating oil rig to get fuel and then go to the fixed oil rig to retrieve the injured patient and then get him back to Manila. Due to the nature of the patient’s injuries we had to try not to fly too high, so I had to route out over the South China Sea and then back in to avoid the high ground.
“It certainly put the aircraft through its paces. When we got back to Manila, I was surprised it still had any paint on it after the absolutely torrential rain we flew through.
ACAM’s global fleet now numbers 40-plus aircraft.
“At the end of the job I’d completed a duty time of 24 hours – I’d been on duty the entire day before – but I had to do this job as a matter of mercy to save this poor bugger’s life. Fortunately, he lived, and I’m super pleased that we managed to get down to him and pick him up.”
Back in Indonesia, Broderick worked as the general manager of several Part 135 charter companies before leaving the last of those 15 years ago with “no plan”.
“I had two mentors who were very near and dear to me – they’ve both passed away now unfortunately, an American gentleman named Archie Loper and an Australian gentleman by the name of Dick Brown – who encouraged me to start our own business and that’s the advice I took,” he says. “We started ACAM in parallel with another helicopter company. But I decided to shut that one down after about four years to concentrate on ACAM.
“In the early days one of the biggest challenges was we set up the company with very little capital. I started it with just $130,000, that’s all I had.”
Deterred from seeking finance by his father, who said it was like having “a gun pointed at your head”, Broderick set about trying to grow at a manageable pace.
“India’s GDP is amazing. It’s got a growing population of UHNWI, probably the fastest growing on the planet today, per capita, so it’s an obvious focus,” he says. “They’ve expanded the infrastructure in India to build a bunch of new airports and they have more on the plan so it’s really opening up.
“India has its restrictions of course, but nevertheless it’s a huge market for corporate aviation, no doubt about it, both in terms of sales and management opportunities.”
China was the “huge thing”, but that’s “well and truly changed” says Broderick, who instead sees “a lot of growth” in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Lao and Indonesia.
“The market is still quite dynamic although there was definitely a marked slowdown in the last quarter of 2023. But the number of jets coming in over the next 12-18 months is actually quite staggering, both new and pre-owned aircraft,” he says.
Broderick is also noticing a new rung of clients joining the market.
“The previous generation are handing over to the younger generation, guys in their 30s and early 40s,” he says. “Where perhaps their fathers were a bit conservative in acquiring a private jet, the younger guys are a lot more savvy and are tending to see the value in terms of time saving and the convenience of owning a private jet.”
And it’s the younger generation who have finally convinced him to develop a digital presence. (He did once have a website but took it down as he didn’t like the “verbiage”.)
“I’ve known a lot of these guys since they were kids, they call me uncle,” he says.
“Uncle Darren, when are you going to do a website because I have a friend whose dad has a jet and I told him to bring it to you and he looked you up on the internet and couldn’t find anything?”
Broderick began his aviation career when he was still at school in Adelaide, South Australia, training as a fixed-wing pilot and passing his commercial licence just after his 18th birthday before adding his helicopter licence four weeks later.
He then flew both airplanes and helicopters as a bush pilot in the outback in Australia before joining an aviation business back in Adelaide. After a year the company sent him to work in southeast Asia and he found his “niche”. “That was 40 years ago and I never went back,” he says.
“We launched into the middle of the typhoon and it was an interesting flight …”
Cabin comforts: The younger generation really appreciate the time saving and convenience of owning a private jet, says Darren Broderick.
Broderick spent many years flying and instructing before taking on senior management roles such as chief pilot and chief of training.
In 2000, as the pilot in command of a Sikorsky S76 helicopter he was awarded a Sikorsky Winged S Rescue Award for the recovery of a badly injured crewman from an oil rig in the south of the Philippines.
“There was a typhoon coming through and there was an offshore support vessel supporting an oil rig in the very south that had hit some massive waves which injured one of the seamen very severely – he had head injuries and would have passed away if we hadn’t got to him that night,” he says.
“We launched into the middle of the typhoon and it was an interesting flight, to say the least, of about three hours to get down there from Manila. I had to land on one floating oil rig to get fuel and then go to the fixed oil rig to retrieve the injured patient and then get him back to Manila. Due to the nature of the patient’s injuries we had to try not to fly too high, so I had to route out over the South China Sea and then back in to avoid the high ground.
“It certainly put the aircraft through its paces. When we got back to Manila, I was surprised it still had any paint on it after the absolutely torrential rain we flew through.
ACAM’s global fleet now numbers 40-plus aircraft.
“At the end of the job I’d completed a duty time of 24 hours – I’d been on duty the entire day before – but I had to do this job as a matter of mercy to save this poor bugger’s life. Fortunately, he lived, and I’m super pleased that we managed to get down to him and pick him up.”
Back in Indonesia, Broderick worked as the general manager of several Part 135 charter companies before leaving the last of those 15 years ago with “no plan”.
“I had two mentors who were very near and dear to me – they’ve both passed away now unfortunately, an American gentleman named Archie Loper and an Australian gentleman by the name of Dick Brown – who encouraged me to start our own business and that’s the advice I took,” he says. “We started ACAM in parallel with another helicopter company. But I decided to shut that one down after about four years to concentrate on ACAM.
“In the early days one of the biggest challenges was we set up the company with very little capital. I started it with just $130,000, that’s all I had.”
Deterred from seeking finance by his father, who said it was like having “a gun pointed at your head”, Broderick set about trying to grow at a manageable pace.
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“In the early days it was tight, but within two weeks of starting the company we had our first aircraft, a Gulfstream G450. A week later we got a Gulfstream G200 and within one year we had seven aircraft,” he says.
“It was a fast ride. It had its challenges to keep things operating at times, financially, but we managed, we got through.”
Broderick puts the success of ACAM down to his people – “my biggest assets” – employing more than 100 staff from across Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
“We like to identify as an Asian company with global standards,” he says. “It’s a big mixed bag really, a melting pot of the best of the best.
“We want them to be part of a family and not just an employee, that’s a very important point to me. No matter how big we get, that will never change. I guess the proof is in the tenure they stay with us. We’ve got employees who started on day one who are still here.”
Outwardly, ACAM might not appear very digital, but Broderick says as a company they’re “very tech savvy”.
“I get asked how I can grow the company and not grow the management and I say that it’s very simple, we’ve invested in IT,” he says.
“We’re using a lot of platforms that have made the job of managing the aircraft very efficient and straightforward and there’s been no need to throw people in cubicles. I go to my competitors’ offices, especially here in Asia, and there are glass towers full of cubicles and lots of people and a guy in one cubicle will email the guy in the cubicle next to him which is just ridiculous.”
Broderick has about 15,000 of his pilot hours logged in helicopters. He also has a further 3,000 hours in fixed-wing aircraft, and says he still “loves to get away and fly when I can”.
“We actually own several airplanes of our own and whilst it’s nice to sit in the back and have a beer and have the guys take me where I need to go, I much prefer sitting in the front,” he says.
Building the business has taken its toll on a personal level but Broderick is buoyed by the fact that his kids are keen to take over at some stage.
“The biggest disappointment is I’ve sacrificed a lot of family time for the growth of the company over the years, but they cope very well,” he says.
“I took my 15-year-old son to Dubai recently on his first business trip and he attended many meetings with me and on the way back he said, ‘Dad, now I understand’. Which was so nice of him.
“I built this company for my kids, it’s their future. We’ve had several offers to buy the company but it’s simply not for sale until the day my kids tell me they’re not interested, which they won’t. I know that for a fact.”
He adds: “My son is slated to go into the Emirates Flight Training Academy [EFTA] when he is 17, as is my oldest niece. My daughter is only 10 and already she says she is the future CEO. They have a true desire to follow what we’ve set up.”
For Broderick, the greatest satisfaction comes from knowing he’s done a good job for his clients.
“It’s about success, it’s not about money,” he says. “Success and customer satisfaction, they are my mottos. I’ve never been money oriented. I’m a very humble guy, I don’t live a particularly extravagant life. I just love what I do. To watch a customer be satisfied is to me really the end game.
“I met a guy for the first time in India recently, I did this deal with him, we immediately gelled and straight away he picked up the phone to one of his friends and said, ‘You have to meet this guy’.
“That was wonderful, I thought ‘Wow, I’ve made an impression, he’s comfortable with me, I’m comfortable with him’. That’s success, mate.”
A family enterprise: Darren Broderick says: “I built this business for my kids.” His son (pictured) is due to attend the Emirates Flight Training Academy.
“It’s about success, it’s not about money. Success and customer satisfaction, they are my mottos.”
