You ask Sam Iliades which aircraft he likes flying, big, small, propeller-driven or jet powered and he offers no preference. The chief executive of Australian Corporate Jets loves flying, he is also a Qantas pilot, so that any aircraft, big or small rates high in his estimation.

“Every aircraft is so different, a Boeing 747 is like flying a large, docile aircraft, corporate jets are sleeker and more like driving a sports car, turboprops can fly on grass and dirt runaways,” he tells Neos Kosmos.

Flying has been part of the lifeblood of the Iliades family since his late father Nilles Iliades who while studying law he signed on and trained as a pilot officer for the Royal Australian Air Force Melbourne University Squadron. But government cut backs put a halt to his flying ambitions and he went on to a career in banking but flying was close to his heart and he passed that love to his children. .

“My dad, who came from Samos in the 1950s, would take us to air pageants as kids, my brother looked at becoming a pilot but went into engineering instead. Straight out of high school in 1993, I went to Essendon Fields Airport when I was 17 and I am still there now,” he said.

He undertook an RMIT diploma pilot course at Essendon Fields Airport which is a public airport that is serves scheduled commercial, corporate-jet charter and general flights which has served as an airport since 1921- the airport served as Australia’s second and Melbourne’s first international airport until it was replaced by the Tullamarine Airport in 1970.

Corporate jet on the tarmac. Photo: Australian Corporate Jet Centres/Supplied

Mr Iliades progressed from learning to fly a single engined piston aircraft to jet engines and in the process became a pilot instructor. He also carried out flights on behalf of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and supporting Fire relief.

He was one of the team to fly a turboprop Piper Cheyenne III on the Kangaroo Route that recalled the early days of passenger travel between Australia and Britain it included stopovers in Crete and Corfu.

He also flew corporate jets for Victorian families and in 2005 flew as the second officer on board Qantas Boeing 747s on international flights and then as first officer on Boeing 737s on Qantas domestic and regional flights. He is also set to make the transition to flying the Airbus A330 on international and domestic routes.

In 2009, Mr Iliades, in partnership with Vas Nikolovski started his own aviation company Australian Corporate Jet Centres (ACJC) a full-service aviation company. The company manages a fleet of 18 corporate jets and helicopters ranging in size from light jet aircraft to 50-seater commuter aircraft – the largest such company in Australia. All this while he continues to fly aircraft for Qantas.

“We have a good team running the flight and normal operations, while I run the business side of it,” said Mr Iliades. The services offered range from charter flying, a worldwide charter broking service, to flying air ambulances including ensuring the rapid delivery of organs for transplants. There is also an engineering division for aircraft maintenance and the company has a VIP corporate lounge. It also oversees the buying and selling and aircraft for clients.

“It is a one-stop shop for aviation requirements. I spend a lot of time on the phone,” said Mr Iliades.

Corporate jet interior. Photo: Australian Corporate Jet Centres/Supplied

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the airline industry suffered brutally. ACJC continued to operate at a reduced level with much of the business generated in transporting clients to key business meetings. With the industry largely grounded by the pandemic it was also a time to consolidate the business with the purchases of Jet City and Jet City Engineering which expanded the ACJC fleet and its operations.

The COVID experience brought about a sea change in the way the world viewed corporate jet services. Services that were once considered a luxury are now seen in as a useful alternative to traditional airline travel. Mr Iliades said corporate jet sales have “skyrocketed” in the post-COVID world even as airlines are battling shortages of pilots, aircraft engineers and other staff.

“The air chartering service is seen as useful alternative with no problems of long queues and flight delays. You can set up your own schedule and travel with groups of people you know, like fellow businessmen, sports teams or family members and friends. You get into a car, get on the plane and to straight to where you want to go without the fuss.

“You get four or five executives who need to go on a business trip to the middle of Australia and they can be home in a day and save days in traveling (on commercial airlines). It is a good efficient way to travel.

It is no surprise that the flying is part of his two young sons’ lives. His eldest, James, 13 is showing signs of following his father’ s footsteps.

“Both boys have been around aircraft from young. For them getting in and out of aircraft is like getting into a car. My partner, Kate, was in the industry and now works in the company.

Corporate jet interior. Photo: Australian Corporate Jet Centres/Supplied

After his youngest son, Andrew, now 10, was diagnosed with the rare Addison’s disease, an endocrine disease, Mr Iliades set the Altitude Children’s Foundation in 2019, to raise awareness when he found that there was little available information for endocrine related disease which affects major glands in the body and manifests in different ways in different people in forms such as diabetes, abnormal growth in children, adrenal issues. The foundation which has 17 corporate partners including ACJC, Qantas and a number of other aviation organisations raises funds for research to provide support for sufferers and their families.

“The biggest thing is when we help people with information and offer them comfort. With the money raised, we have provided for a specialist endocrine nurse at the Royal Children’s Hospital to talk to families about the disease and treatments, Mr Iliades told the Global Sports Channel, another partner of the Altitude Children’s Foundation.

His love of flying is at the heart of his being.

“I am 47 and I have completed 16,000 hours of flying. That is 660 days or two years of my life have been spent up in the air in control of an aircraft,” Mr Iliades.