In 2018, Gianlucca Nahas and Marco Fragali, then 16 years old, saw a business opportunity and founded the company FlyBy, specialized on business class airline tickets sales with discounts of up to 50%. Elected in 2021 Forbes Under 30 in Brazil, the partners celebrate the success and the pioneering spirit of expansion towards the international market.
On the first three months of Miami's office, FlyBy earned a revenue of US$ 1.2 million – an indicative of the business' potential in North America. In Brazil, the sales were US$ 23.6 million in 2022.
"The north american network for international flights, especially those departing to Europe, Asia or Africa, is almost 5 times larger than the brazilian one, which makes mandatory for us to look in that direction", says Gianlucca Nahas, co-CEO of FlyBy.
Marco Fragali, co-CEO of the company, highlights FlyBy's competitive differential. "In addition to the attractive value in business class, we are also going to offer international customers concierge service, a convenient premium service for which we are recognized in Brazil", says.
There are many routs that FlyBy offers up to 50% of discount, like Bogota-Madrid, Geneve-New York, New York-London, Santiago-New York, Lima-Madrid, Lisbon-Miami, Miami-Zurich.
The market diversification breaks the seasonality common in the tourism industry, since the demand peaks in Brazil and the United States complement each other throughout the year. FlyBy's Miami office's sales began on Black Friday, an important date for USA tourism. At that time, 200 tickets were sold, all on transcontinental flights between the USA and Europe. "We targeted the market that departed from the US to other continents, focusing on departures between Latin America and Europe. Miami was the right decision to serve this new audience and expand into the international market," says Nahas.
The office is on Brickell and the amount invested in the US should be US$ 1.5 million on 2023, with an expected revenue of US$ 9 million in the first year and a break-even in May.