Discover Upwind

Our Story

Upwind Aviation was founded in Sion, Switzerland by two entrepreneurs; one of them involved in aviation, Mauro Mendoza, an airline and private aviation pilot, and the other one working in hospitality, Ernesto Rivera, who grew up within a family-owned hotel business.

They met in October 2019 at an airport in Mexico sharing comments about some interesting projects where they discovered a common interest, aviation. After further discussion they came up with the idea to develop a new product that could change private aviation and its market.

This new product would take shape first as a mobile application to complete a full new approach on customer service and bespoke private aviation services. This could just become possible by combining their expertise and professional abilities.

This new project landed in Switzerland after Ernesto entered an MBA program in a highly renowned hospitality school which has its own startup incubation program. Their project not only was accepted but also caught the interest of many people as it presents key and attractive new elements into the private aviation industry.

Once onboard this program, with the advice from their mentor Eric Balet, they invited two new members to the core team, Arturo Morales, software engineer and technology expert and Julian Lee, hospitality and real estate expert. Both completed the core foundation with knowledge, experience, and expertise to take this new project to the sky.

All this exciting development took place in the middle of Covid pandemic with numerous challenges and uncertain times. The team still decided to go UPWIND to rise the same way airplanes do, with a headwind, and making the best of all situations that come upon them.