ISD Partners helps aviation and tourism organisations unlock growth through deep industry intelligence, clear commercial strategy, and hands-on delivery. We show up on day one ready to work.
ISD Partners brings together two experienced industry leaders with over four decades of combined experience across airlines, airports and commercial strategy.
We operate as your fractional intelligence, strategy and delivery team, embedded alongside your leadership and focused entirely on your commercial priorities. We stay in the problem until results show up.
We combine your operational data with our deep aviation and tourism market knowledge to identify real opportunities, then work alongside you to capture them.
"We don't just analyse data or make recommendations. We combine intelligence with strategy development and hands-on delivery. And we stay accountable for results."
Mick Cottrell & Dan Cheshire · Founders, ISD PartnersWe arrive as a complete, experienced team with no recruiting and no onboarding. We are already in the problem because we have lived it before.
We operate as part of your senior team, not as distant partners. Typically two to four days per week, in your office, alongside your people.
An aviation analytics specialist and an experienced commercial leader working as one. Complete intelligence-to-delivery capability in a single engagement.
Success means results, not recommendations. We are accountable for what happens after the strategy is agreed, not just the strategy itself.
Annual partnerships with milestone reviews. You are never locked in if we are not delivering value. We earn the relationship every quarter.
No months of onboarding before value appears. We show up on day one ready to work because we have been in this industry for two decades.
Most firms are accountable for the advice. ISD is accountable for the result. We are in it until the outcome is realised, not just agreed.
Growing connectivity and unlocking new revenue takes more than ambition. ISD brings route development, commercial optimisation and executive airline relationship management to make it real.
Network strategy, profitability improvement and market positioning for carriers navigating a complex commercial environment.
More seats means more visitors. For tourism organisations that know aviation capacity is the real constraint on growth, ISD delivers the strategy and airline relationships to unlock it.
Aviation policy guidance, regional connectivity solutions and investment-grade analysis for government agencies and economic development bodies.
One of the region's most respected commercial minds in aviation, Mick operates at the point where strategy meets execution — walking into complex situations, finding the commercial logic others missed, and making sure results actually follow.
"The person you want in the room when the commercial decision is hard." Mick has a rare ability to cut through complexity and find the path forward. He thinks clearly under pressure, builds consensus where others create gridlock, and stays in the problem until results show up.
He is at his best when an organisation needs to make a bold commercial move and wants someone who has done it before. Not the theory. The execution.
One of New Zealand aviation's most respected commercial intelligence minds, Dan is the person government agencies, airlines, airports and industry bodies call when they need clarity from complexity.
"Smart, rigorous, and genuinely independent." Dan's gift is making sense of complexity. He takes the messy, conflicting, incomplete information that most organisations are sitting on and turns it into something a leadership team can actually use to make decisions and move forward.
The result is always the same. Better intelligence, better decisions, better outcomes.
We work with a small number of clients at any time. If you are an airport, airline, tourism organisation or government agency looking for an experienced embedded partner, we would like to hear from you.