VIP-paragliding Celebrates 1st birthday!

After making well over a thousand tandem paragliding flights taking along customers of other paragliding companies in Austria, exactly one year ago – on June 24th 2023 – I decided that it was about time to do my own sales, have my own customer contacts and especially … give my customers, my “very important passengers” the highest standard of care, attention and service.

The very important passenger idea

Already before that time I had been thinking about setting top my own business. Luckily tandem paragliding in Austria is a “free profession” and there are no “medieval” rules prohibiting entry into the market except that all pilots of course need all licences, insurance and requirements to be allowed to fly commercially. The name VIP-paragliding was easily found, mostly because some Swiss and French paragliding companies already use the “very important passenger” idea. So it’s an example of the marketing principle: “Better well copied, than you own bad idea”.

And so it went last year. A website was quickly published and some first flyers were printed. It took a few weeks for the success to come so it was a nerve wrecking time, knowing that you could have earned much more money, and more importantly made many more flights. It’s a 100% passion job so being on the ground waiting for customers to come feels like being a bird with a broken wing. And then when the bookings started pouring in, that was at the beginning of august 2023, VIP-paragliding was literally sky-born!

a long flight for many hours

And ever since then the customers have lined up and our concept has been proving itself time and again. As a former ski teacher I appreciate the most when there is a true authentic contact between the pilot and the passenger. With ski teaching that is easy because, one spends one or more days with the client and one has lunch together on the mountain. That feeling is reflected by our top product – the Ultra VIP day – where just like a ski teacher we would spend a whole day with a customer, who had been tandem flying before and now wants to make a long flight for many hours.

the decision to be daring and go flying

But even in our standard products, the Try-Out Magic (20 minutes) and the Intense High & Long (40 minutes) we take the time we have with our passengers. When not fully booked we love to drink a coffee together on the mountain before the start or after the landing in our partner hotel Sonja Alpine Resort. We love to tell our story, as we do today, but even more to listen to your story, happy or sometimes even a bit sad. Just yesterday we flew with a father and daughter, who told us that originally the mother was supposed to go flying but she died before there was a chance to go do it. For many passengers the decision to be daring and go flying carries some emotional weight, and it’s just wonderful if we can be a part of these emotions. In that way a flight with vip-paragliding can really be a transformative thing.

Zell am See Kaprun, Salzburg and Königsleiten

The spirit with which we fly – true passion and authentic contact and a good sense of humour too – spills over into our ever growing network of partners too. There are the various taxi companies in Zell am See Kaprun and Salzburg that we work with. There is our very important partner hotel that I already mentioned just next to the landing site. Just this week we will adorn it with our beach flags for the first time. Then we have great things going in Königsleiten together with Alpenwelt Resort. And an underestimated partner of our company is the German mekka of paragliding: Papillon at the Wasserkuppe. We also love our contact with the Ticha family who own our exceptional landing field in the Schmittenvalley and it’s all just to nice to build these cooperations and enjoy the company of such great people.

Special action price of 155 euro

So and now finally: how are we going to celebrate our first anniversary? It will be with a lovely breakfast at Sonja Alpine Resort. And what’s in it for you? Well…. we decided we have to share our enthusiasm about the first successful year with our passengers too. So we diced that in the whole month of July each day the first 4 bookers benefit from a special action price of 155 euro for the 20 minute “Try-Out Magic” tandem flight (normal price 188 euro). So that is the price including photo & video. With us that’s always included and we give you a video of the start and landing of your flight as well. So go ahead and benefit from our jubilee month and reserve your flight slot(s) via this link.

Title photo by Nechama Lock on Unsplash