An high-flying aviation school entrepreneur has soared into Australia’s Young Rich List for the first time.
As an ambitious and smart-thinking young flying instructor, Neel Khokhani, then 22, was sacked for telling his boss that his aircraft fleet could be better.
With just $5000 in savings, he crowdfunded the purchase of his first plane by selling highly discounted lessons on group buying site Scoopon.
He sold $180,000 of vouchers within a day, enough to buy his first plane and start up his own flying school in Melbourne.
Neel Khokhani (pictured with wife Marianna) has made his Australia’s Young Rich List debut
Eight years on, Soar Aviation is now Australia’s biggest flying school with 67 aircraft, three airport campuses in Melbourne, Sydney and Bendigo and more than 500 students, including the great-great-nephew of aviation pioneer Charles Kingsford Smith.
Khokhani, now 30, has built a $66million fortune and is deservedly ranked 51st in his debut on Australia’s Young Rich List.
Originally from India, Khokhani arrived in Australia as a 16-year-old teenager to chase his dreams of becoming a pilot, where he learned how fly at Sydney’s Bankstown Airport before he could even drive.
‘I was always fascinated by Richard Branson as a boy and wanted to start my own airline,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘But it’s something you can’t teach a 12-year-old so I decided to first learn how to fly instead. I was a bit of a nerd so I skipped a few grades to finish school at 15.
‘I came to Australia with my parents to study aviation at 16 and had my pilot licence by the age of 18.’
Neel founded Soar Aviation as a 22-year-old, which is now Australia’s biggest flying school
Within four years, the young instructor was questioning his boss about the planes he had after hearing about smaller, cheaper and more efficient aircraft being built in Europe.
‘Every Friday night, we would catch up for a beer and one night, I decided to give him a few ideas about how to run his business,’ Khokhani recalled.
‘He took it quite personally and said “If you think you can run a flying school better than me, then go and start your own”.’
‘Being 22 and with $5000 in savings, I was shocked, scared and nervous about having to support myself. But it turned out to be a good thing and never looked back.’
Soar Aviation’s success began to take off as one-time customers came back for repeat lessons.
Neel Khokhani’s (pictured with wife Marianna) rise as an entrepreneur as been a bumpy ride
In 2016, the company joined forces with Box Hill Institute to offer evening theory lessons and weekend practical lessons in an effort to address a worldwide shortage of pilots.
Since then, flying school’s growth has sky-rocketed by almost 600 per cent as it nears a turnover of $20 million.
Khokhani admits keeping up with the overwhelming success of his aviation school on top of dealing with his industry’s red tape has been a struggle.
‘The biggest lesson I’ve learned over the last eight years is to never to give up,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘There have been so many instances where I felt down and out and had countless discussions with my wife of it being too hard. But I’ve learned with every difficult period faced, success follows.’
Neel started up his own flying school after he was sacked by his boss for suggesting ideas
He told Smart Company earlier this year: ‘Going from $3 million to $12 million — 300 per cent growth — that’s nearly a per cent a day. If you go for a three week holiday, you come back and the business has completely changed.
‘You pick new processes to implement, but they’re outdated by the time you finish implementing them. It’s really posed a lot of challenges.’
Khokhani is seeing his hard work and persistence pay off.
‘Coming to Australia as an immigrant and building a something from nothing in such a short space of time has been a huge accomplishment,’ he said.
‘But what I’m most proud of is that in the last two years, the majority of our 65 graduates are now working as pilots for commercial charters or an airline.’
‘I don’t think too much about being on Australia’s Young Rich List or how much I’m worth.’
Aviation school entrepreneur Neel Khokhani, 30, (pictured) has built a $66million fortune
He sold 50 per cent of the company to private equity investor The Growth Fund last year and remains heavily involved as chief executive.
‘My focus is on building the school so it can continue to grow and be successful in helping the aviation industry,’ he said.
The growth of his company has meant Khokhani hadn’t been behind the controls in the cockpit in four-and-a-half years until recently.
‘It was a bit windy and bumpy, but it’s like riding a bike – it all comes back to you when you’re up there,’ he told Australian Financial Review Magazine.
He had this advice for budding entrepreneurs.
‘You need patience,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘When I speak to my generation, so many don’t have the patience and all want success 30 seconds into future.
‘It takes two to five years of hard work to see success in the long term.’
Neel Khokhani has seen his company Soar Aviation grow by almost 600 per cent in the last three years as it nears a turnover of $20 million