Valour Consultancy Looks Ahead With Queen’s Award and Post-Pandemic Predictions

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    From left: Valour Consultancy’s co-founders, Joshua Flood, Craig Foster and Daniel Welch.

    With the commercial aviation industry walloped by a near shutdown of international travel and severely reduced domestic air travel during the coronavirus pandemic, Valour Consultancy commits to helping clients plan for the rebound – and gets recognized for its work in the process.

    Amid a deluge of lows for the travel industry, aerospace and maritime market research firm Valour Consultancy has some good news to share: It has received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the highest official accolade for a British business. The company, which provides insights to aircraft manufacturers, global satellite operators, multinational service providers and airlines around the world, was recognized in the category of international trade after increasing its overseas sales by 157 percent over the last three years.

    “We’re continuing to assist clients by answering questions about the market and what the post-pandemic world might look like.” – Craig Foster, Valour Consultancy

    “We were obviously delighted to be given such a prestigious award, which is recognition of years of hard work and dedication. At the same time, we’re acutely aware that we’re part of an industry that is suffering right now and wanted to strike the right tone when drafting our press release,” said Craig Foster, one Valour Consultancy’s co-founders (Joshua Flood and Daniel Welch are the others). “Judging from the reaction so far, people seem genuinely pleased to hear some good news, which is lovely to see.”

    Speaking of how business has shifted in these uncertain times, Foster has said that the agency’s goals for 2020 remain largely unchanged, with the team still planning to roll out improvements to its IFC and IFE trackers, and release new research reports. “Generally speaking, we’re continuing to assist clients by answering questions about the market and what the post-pandemic world might look like,” Foster says.

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    The firm has taken to its blog to share predictions for in-flight entertainment and connectivity in a post-COVID-19 world. In one article, Foster writes about the possibility of reduced interaction with seatback screens and passenger control units, a move to antimicrobial coatings for screens and the growth in pairing PEDs with Bluetooth and NFC. In another, William Calvert, research analyst at Valour Consultancy, discusses how prolonged cost-cutting measures and the general uncertainty brought on by COVID-19 will affect IFC adoption in the near to long term. (Spoiler: It doesn’t augur as badly as one might think, with significant shifts in behavior on the ground suggesting an eventual possible uptick in take rates and bandwidth in the air.)

    Even more important than industry trackers and research reports are the honest, direct conversations Valour is having with clients around the world – whose support they say was integral to their recent win. “We’re lucky enough to have built some fantastic partnerships with companies in all corners of the world and are in the fortunate position where we can pick up the phone and have a friendly chat with many of them. And likewise, it’s been great to see clients calling us to exchange ideas on what the post-pandemic landscape might look like,” Foster says. “If there’s one good thing that’s come out of all of this it’s that we’ve been given the ideal opportunity to come together and ensure that we’re all best prepared for the rebound when it comes.”