Top 5 Private Aviation leaders With Unprecedented Demand

Top 5 Private Aviation leaders With Unprecedented Demand



The consensus among professionals in the private aircraft sector is that demand is at an all-time high. That’s because, over the past two years, the wealthy have fled public airports and first-class seats on commercial airplanes, opting instead to use private terminals and jets. Private jet travel, which may have looked extravagant to those who could afford it before the epidemic, has become essential as people try to avoid the spread of the diseаse. With an increase in the demand for private air travel comes a shortage of available private planes, both new and used. When you include in the ongoing, pаndemic-fueled supply-chain issues that have slowed manufacture of new aircraft, private aviation companies and travelers alike are in for a perfect storm. However, better times are on the way.

PURE AIR

Despite shortages caused by the epidemic, US charter firm Jet Edge continued to grow rapidly and was acquired by Vista Global in March. The change will allow Jet Edge to better respond to rising passenger demand for flights. “There is an extremely high number of dissatisfied fractional and jet card customers in the market today,” adds Adler. “As strange as it may sound, one of the main reasons why people are flocking to our site is because we truly have availability. Today, we can travel the skies in airplanes. There is adequate capacity in our network to accommodate more users. It so happens that we have access to the most advanced machinery available.

Since its inception in 2007, Jet Edge has focused on the management of its fleet of charter aircraft, which includes anything from suρer-midsize Gulfstream G280s to large-cabin, long-range BBJs. In contrast, the corporation has turned its attention to purchasing planes and making them available to its members with the help of $265 million worth of capital it obtained last year.

FLEXJET

Like much of the industry, Flexjet has been forced to limit new business due to strained flight availability. Flexjet suspended new jet card sales, rather than price gouge would-be customers. And while it increased its jet card reservation lead time from one day to five days and added peak surcharges, Flexjet is still maintaining lead times and signing up new fractional owners and lease holders, with new jet deliveries scheduled throughout 2022. Flexjet—owned by Directional Aviation, which is also parent company to Sentient Jet, FXAIR, PrivateFly, and other industry leaders—is investing $850 million to grow its fleet to 231 jets, including 50 more aircraft the company expects to enter its fleet by the end of the year. Those planes include Bombardier Challenger 350s, Gulfstream G650s, Embraer Phenom 300s, and Embraer Praetor 500s in North America and Embraer Praetor 600s and Gulfstream G650s in Europe, with four new planes entering its fleet each month since the end of last year. The company hired some 170 new pilots last year and says it plans to add 300 more by the end of this year, in addition to 100 service and operations staff. Flexjet is also building an ultra-modern headquarters and operations center outside Cleveland, which will help it manage the ongoing demand for private jet travel. flexjet.com

Bombardier Global 7500

VISTAJET

Since its founding in 2004, VistaJet has become one of the leaders in European jet travel, along with NetJets Europe. More recently, VistaJet’s parent company, Vista Global, expanded its international market share, especially in the United States.

“We had a 300 percent growth of new program members in North America,” says Matteo Atti of the last year, citing VistaJet’s subscription-based charter model, influx of new aircraft, and importantly, flight availability for new members as a big draw to U.S. travelers. “We made our bets on how the market would grow many years ago, and our pipeline of deliveries has been very strong.”

Last April, VistaJet took delivery of the first two Global 7500s, with up to 12 more scheduled to enter its fleet over the next two years, plus 10 Challenger 350 suρer-midsize jets. With its recent acquisitions, including US charter operators Jet Edge this year and XOJET in 2018, Vista Global has massively expanded its access points for US-based travelers and become the world’s largest charter operator.

“While previously, a lot of American customers would refer to regional providers and then find ad hoc charter when they were in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East,” he says, “we see a lot of them looking for a trusted partner that can serve them in this country and on every other continent.” vistajet.com

Citation Excel/XLS interior

WHEELS UP

Though the company is less than a decade old, Wheels Up has rapidly become an industry powerhouse. It started as a regional provider, offering short flights aboard its branded fleet of King Air 350i turboprops and then adding longer-range Citation Excel/XLS and Citation X jets. In 2020, Delta Private Jets merged with Wheels Up, quickly making it one of the largest operators by flight hours in the country with more than 11,000 members accessing its fleet of more than 1,500 owned, leased, managed, and partner aircraft. Beyond its owned fleet of King Airs and Citation jets, Wheels Up now offers flights on all aircraft types, from light to large-cabin jets. Last year, the company introduced its Up for Business program to better serve corporate travelers with options for charter, management, and ownership. Due to massive increase in demand, it was forced to put a 90-day travel moratorium on new members from last November to February, so that it could continue serving its current members. With record earnings in 2021, the company says it is making investments across the board in order to ensure its ability to satisfy current demand and deliver on members’ future expectations. wheelsup.com

“We are the only operator of Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft that has added a significant number of planes in 2021 and will continue to do so through 2022,” says Adler. We are expanding our fleet just when the market is becoming extremely tight for aircraft.

More than 20 planes, including Gulfstream GIVs and G450s that seat 13, and Challenger 300s and 350s that seat 8, were delivered to Jet Edge in 2017. It already has 75 planes in service and plans to add 20 more this year. The company has recently acquired an airplane, and it is currently refurbishing it with special furnishings and the newest technology in preparation for its Reserve members, who will make a deposit of between $100,000 and $500,000 to be used as a travel fund at predetermined hourly rates.

“It’s a simple, simple program,” Adler explains. “And there’s really little obligation. People are quick to jump on board, I believe, because we’ve made it so simple. flyjetedge.com

“In the past two years, a lot of people have taken their first bite of the juicy apple that is private aviation,” says Matteo Atti, executive vice president of innovation at VistaJet, a prominent European private aircraft operator that has risen to become one of the world’s largest. And so, a previously untapped demographic of consumers is finally finding their way into the market. And it, I believe, will speed up innovation throughout the sector as a whole.

When crew or mechanical concerns emerged, charter flights were frequently canceled and passengers stranded on the tarmac, according to tales from 2020 and 2021. As a result, airlines are investing heavily in brand new planes as manufacturers unveil their newest models. Several new private jet models, including the largest and best from Dassault and Gulfstream, respectively, the Gulfstream 800, and a revolutionary HondaJet concept capable of intercontinental travel, were introduced last year.

Those models won’t be ready for people to buy for at least a few years because of the certification and introduction process. VistaJet, NetJets, FlexJet, and Jet Edge, among other providers, are putting down hundreds of milliоns of dollars to claim jets years before they roll off the assembly line for currently certified models.

Meanwhile, both airlines and passengers are increasingly interested in charter flights. However, the number of available private aircraft is at an all-time low, making it difficult for flight service providers to meet demand; as a result, many of them are no longer accepting new customers. Thus, providers continue to, if not innovate, then at least adapt.

For the most part, “NetJets is consistently operating well beyond pre-pаndemic flight volume,” says Patrick Gallagher, president of sales, marketing, and service. While most [fractional aircraft] owners report that recent trips were “business as usual,” some have encountered difficulties due to the increased demand across the industry.

As a result, in August of last year, NetJets, the largest private jet operator in the world, halted sales of new jet cards, its solution for ad hoc flights requiring temporary capital. The second largest fractional aircraft operator, Flexjet, stopped selling jet cards two months later. As of go-to-press, it appeared as though those sales could pick back up in the spring.

“There are no signs right now that point toward the market slowing down,” says Jonah Adler, chief commercial officer at Jet Edge, a rising star among flight service providers with one of the faster-growing fleets. If you want to avoid strеss and hassle, “our best advice to all of our members is to try to plan your travel as early as possible, get your trips booked, and then you don’t have to worry about it.”

Here’s a close inspection of the current state of each service provider.