Charter Alerts

Courtesy AIN 9/28/15 - This morning a group of financial institutions led by T. Rowe Price announced a $115 million capital injection for private flight membership program Wheels Up. The investment is backed by Fidelity Management and Research Company and NEA, and, according to Wheels Up, values the two-year old company at $500 million. Wheels Up founder and CEO Kenny Dichter said that the fresh funds will support further expansion of the company’s U.S. operations, as well as its plan to begin operations in Europe and the development of new technology platforms, such as its Wheels App member-to-member flight sharing feature. With flights operated for it by Gama Aviation, the Wheels Up fleet now numbers 45 Beechcraft King Air 350i twin turboprops and 10 Cessna Citation Excel/XLS jets. As of September 2015, Wheels Up reported 1,600 members.  Wheels Up membership costs include a first year membership price, then annual dues thereafter, plus per hour rate for the King Air 350i or Citation Excel; Wheels Up membership costs. “We believe Wheels Up has the rare combination of experienced entrepreneurs, business model innovation and a strong financial model,” said Henry Ellenbogen, portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price. “Wheels Up has developed network density and provides real customer value. It has the potential to be a much larger company,” Ellenbogen noted. Courtesy Aviation International News Other news alerts about Wheels Up: Citation Emergency, Door Opens in Flight - Live ATC recording Wheels Up Takes Delivery of "Pink Plane" In Time for October

Private Jet Services (PJS), a private aviation consulting and charter brokerage firm, announces a new strategic partnership with charter broker Arise Air, according to a company press release. Bryan Ellis, President of Arise Air, will act as the new Director of Executive Aircraft Operations for PJS and Arise Air employees will work out of the PJS corporate headquarters in New Hampshire.

In this role, Ellis will oversee all executive jet vendor relationships and sourcing for PJS. Arise Air customers will have the opportunity to work with PJS' experienced Flight Concierge department and have access to aircraft ranging from light executive jets to VIP configured airliners. Ellis founded Arise Air in 2005 after helping two of the larger private charter brokerages in the country gain traction in the market place. For 10 years Ellis has served Arise Air clients with innovative programs such as Arise Air's Boutique Level Jet Membership program and with a commitment to sourcing the safest aircraft available on the market. According to Ellis, "I am thrilled to join PJS. They have been a leader in the private aviation space for quite some time and I am looking forward to introducing my Arise Air clients to the unmatched customer service PJS provides. My goal as Director of Executive Jet Operations will be to ensure that both Arise Air and PJS customers have unrivaled access to the newest and safest jets available for charter."

Founder and CEO of PJS, Greg Raiff, said, "Bryan's expertise will help PJS maintain its competitive edge and continue to provide an unbeatable customer experience. We are excited for him to join our team and look forward to working with Arise Air's clients for years to come." In 2013, PJS secured a $10 million line of credit with RBS Citizens bank for the purpose of acquiring complementary organizations in the private aviation space and forming strategic partnerships. Regarding the line of credit, Raiff said, "the substantial funding by RBS Citizens provides the unique opportunity to work with many companies, including Arise Air, that do a fantastic job in our industry, and we are looking forward to partnering with the best of them."

Excerpted from article by Brandon Formby, Dallas Morning News 9/24/15

For a monthly fee of $1,650 to $2,650, Rise members can take an unlimited number of trips on the company’s prescheduled flights to and from Dallas, Austin and Houston. The company started with a soft launch in May and went full force in July. It’s been offering 40 to 50 flights a week and will increase that to 92 a week later this month. Rise plans to expand soon to San Antonio, Oklahoma City and New Orleans. Then, company officials hope to add flights to Tulsa, Shreveport and an Arkansas city to be determined.

Nick Kennedy was a health care information technology executive the first time he flew on a private jet. He admits that traveling amid the Gulfstream G550’s high-end appointments and roomy chairs felt like the “epitome of success.” After just a few flights, the cool factor of such trappings receded. But the convenience of virtually hassle-free boarding and arrival didn’t. The Dallas man said being able to fly around the country for work and still make it home to enjoy his wife and three kids became invaluable. That appreciation quickly became the impetus for a new business venture. “I wanted to enable men and women to be where they wanted to be, when they wanted to be there,” Kennedy said. So last year, Kennedy and a handful of associates launched Rise, a Dallas-based company that is taking the sharing economy to the skies. While Rise conjures the spirit of fellow technology firms like Uber and Airbnb, it actually works more like Netflix. At a higher cost, of course.  

Company employees spent their first nine months securing approval for their business model from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration. Kennedy believes they’re the first to do so. Rise partners with charter flight companies to ensure members will have access to planes, pilots and flights. Kennedy said most private planes only operate at 20 percent of their utilization rate. He estimates that the private jets Rise partners with operate at 75 to 80 percent of their utilization rate.

The Rise-branded King Air is operated by Monarch Air, a Part 135 charter operator based at Dallas’ Addison Airport.

Company officials thoroughly vet the charter firms’ operations, financials, training processes and maintenance practices before partnering with them. “If they meet our standards, then they get to fly our members around,” Kennedy said last week as he stood at Love Field next to one of the King Air 350 planes emblazoned with Rise’s logo.

Removing the hassles

Minutes earlier, the plane had brought six Rise members from Houston. One of them got off, walked a few feet from the plane, put his bags in his waiting car and drove off. Cody Vicknair, an assistant vice president for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in Houston, walked from the plane to the Jet Aviation building that serves as Rise’s terminal. Vicknair, who landed 30 minutes before he was scheduled to give a speech in Dallas, started using the service when it launched. He flies at least once a week. The Houston man said the user interface, lack of long security lines and flexibility of flights attracted him to the service. Rise runs background checks on all member applicants and reserves the right to search passengers and their bags before they board. But with just a handful of passengers leaving from a private hangar, members aren’t subjected to the long lines most people face at commercial airline security checkpoints. After landing in Dallas on Thursday, Vicknair said he wasn’t sure whether he would fly back later that day or stay overnight and catch Rise’s first Friday flight back to Houston. Either way, there was no cost difference. “With this model and technology, they have pretty much figured out the work flow to accommodate us,” he said. “It takes all those hassles out.” As Kennedy and his co-founders toiled at securing federal approval last year, they also went to investors to fund the venture. “The feedback was ‘You’re crazy,’” Kennedy said. “But a lot of people said, ‘If you can pull this off, it’ll really be helpful.’” Kennedy worried that people would be hesitant to share a private plane with other people. The opposite has been true, though. Kennedy said members enjoy chatting with other entrepreneurs and business executives on the flights. Sometimes they end up sharing rides home or to work appointments. Aside from two pilots, there are no service crew members. Drinks are stored near one of the front-row leather seats, often making the person who sits there the de facto bartender for fellow passengers. “They’ll be the ones kind of making drinks for everybody,” Kennedy said. “It’s very much a pass-the-cup mentality.”

On the rise

Rise is privately owned, and Kennedy and chief growth officer Clynt Taylor are the company’s majority owners. Kennedy closed on a first round of successful funding last month, but isn’t publicly releasing figures. He said the company was profitable from the first day of full operations with revenues in the seven figures. He expects that to hit eight figures by the end of this year. The company started off with nine employees but now has 25. That excludes the mechanics and pilots, who work for the charter flight companies. Kennedy expects Rise’s workforce to triple in a year. Kara Goldstein was one of the first employees on board. She left a job at The Brinkmann Corp. to join the startup. She said it was cool to watch a Houston flight land at Love Field last week, less than a year after she began trying to get people to buy into the concept. “We were selling something that essentially didn’t exist,” she said. Company officials don’t release exact membership numbers, but Kennedy expects Rise’s client ranks to exceed 1,000 early next year. Right now there’s a waiting list to join. But more members will come on board as flights and routes are added. “We build capacity based on membership,” said operations vice president Jeremy Kokenes. Glen and Vanida Ragland of Houston purchased a corporate membership, which allows more people to fly. The consultants were attracted by the idea of being able to arrive at the airport just minutes before a flight. One of their employees, who lives in Dallas, uses the membership frequently to balance work and life between the two cities. “He likes the ability to go home if he needs to,” Glen Ragland said. Which, to Kennedy, is the entire point. “If I can find a way to give time back to people, I’m selling them the most valuable commodity there is,” he said.

AT A GLANCE: Rise

Founded: 2014 Website: iflyrise.com CEO: Nick Kennedy Based: Dallas Cities served: Dallas, Austin, Houston Cities planned: New Orleans, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Shreveport, Tulsa and a to-be-decided city in Arkansas Membership: Monthly dues give members unlimited flights per month. Pricing tiers determine how many reservations can be held at any time. Corporate memberships are also available. Express: $1,650 per month for two bookings; companion tickets $750 each Executive: $2,150 for four bookings; 1 free companion ticket per month Chairman: $2,650 for six bookings; 2 free companion tickets per month SOURCE: Rise

The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) is pleased to announce that both the FAA Central Region and FAA Northwest Mountain Region have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that allows charter operators, corporate flight departments and fractional program managers to participate in the Air Charter Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).

The ACSF-managed ASAP program is now approved in the contiguous United States including the FAA Eastern, Great Lakes, Central, Southern, Southwest, Western-Pacific and Northwest Mountain Regions.

ASAP is an FAA/industry partnership that provides a near consequence-free environment, whereby the participants can identify safety issues and report information that can be critical in identifying potential precursors to accidents. “A confidential, non-punitive reporting program is an important cornerstone to developing a robust safety management system,” said ACSF President Bryan Burns. “Company employees are more likely to report events when they have confidence that their reports will be used to produce positive results, and not to place blame.” Burns noted, “Companies that have implemented an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) have learned a wealth of information regarding safety-related events that otherwise would have gone undetected until a major event occurred.” By enrolling in ASAP, companies can benefit from viewing de-identified safety event reports from other participating companies. The value of the program is the collective volume of data that can be reviewed for specific safety patterns. By identifying trends early, the company can implement corrective action through changes in their policies, procedures, and rules.

Deal would make the largest fixed base operator in the world.

Signature Flight Support parent company BBA Aviation has agreed to purchase Landmark Aviation from affiliates of the Carlyle Group for $2.065 billion. Included in the deal are Landmark’s 68 FBOs in North America and Europe, and its MRO business, as well as its fleet of 64 charter aircraft and more than 50 other managed aircraft, which would give BBA its first involvement in the charter/management segment.  The Landmark charter fleet is the fourth largest worldwide. The transaction, subject to approval by regulators and company shareholders, is expected to close early next year.

“The acquisition would enable customers to benefit from an extension of Signature’s industry-leading service offering and its operational excellence across a much larger network of high-quality locations,” said BBA CEO Simon Pryce. “Combining Signature and Landmark Aviation also would realize significant cost synergies as well as substantial tax benefits.” Signature operates 133 FBOs in its worldwide network, and there is currently redundancy at 12 airports in the U.S. and Europe, including Washington Dulles International, Teterboro, Westchester County, Le Bourget and London Luton where the two chains compete, which could lead to some required divestiture. The entire Landmark Aviation charter fleet is available only in FlightList PRO. credit AIN Online

Charter operator SevenJet has added two more light jets to their charter fleet in Ft. Lauderdale and Salt Lake City.  The two Beechjet 400's bring the passenger charter fleet to a total of six light jets. SevenJet has its roots in charter as D & D Aviation based primarily in Salt Lake City, UT for the better part of the last decade.  The ARGUS Gold rated company is growing, more than doubling its fleet size and expects more charter aircraft to come including turboprops in Florida and at SLC.

SevenJet and it's fleet of 6 Part-135 light jets are available only in FlightList PRO.

SevenJet also operates a medical Learjet 25D air ambulance which floats between Scottsdale, AZ and Salt Lake City, UT.

Chartering a private jet to China is easy, but flying privately between airports within the country can be challenging.  To address this problem, the Swiss business-aviation provider VistaJet has partnered with China’s Apex Air to provide point-to-point private air service throughout the country in a Chinese-registered Bombardier Challenger 850 managed and operated by Apex. VistaJet is the first international aviation charter company to offer this service.

One of the largest charter operators worldwide, VistaJet has 47 heavy and long range jets for charter now in the US, Europe and China.  The entire fleet and details are available only in FlightList PRO.

VistaJet officials say they plan to add at least one more China-based airplane later this year, and they will continue to expand the line to meet demand. The company has been working for months to secure all the partnerships and permissions required to launch the new service. The Challenger 850 can carry up to 14 passengers—with berths for seven—at speeds up to 528 mph over a range of 3,230 miles.

  Article info courtesy Mary Grady and Robb Report

Caribbean-based ReyJet acquires private jet charter broker FlyBlackJet.com, according to a 9/21/15 ReyJet press release. In a move to secure a foothold in the US private jet charter market, Dutch Caribbean St. Maarten-based ReyJet, has completed an agreement with the site operator of the privately-held FlyBlackJet.com to take over the website’s operations for an undisclosed amount.  The website’s operation will be completely assimilated into the ReyJet website at www.reyjet.com.

ReyJet is a service of the St. Maarten-based virtual airline operator, AirStMaarten, owned and operated by Terrance Rey.  AirStMaarten, which specializes in organizing shared charters in and out of St. Maarten to Caribbean islands such as St. Barths, Anguilla, Tortola, Virgin Gorda and St. Vincent & The Grenadines, has spun off its private jet charter operations under the brand name “ReyJet.com”.  With this month’s acquisition of FlyBlackJet.com, the group of travel companies owned by Terrance Rey, expect to expand its operations into the continental USA market, according to the release.

Commenting on the acquisition, Terrance Rey said, “ReyJet will leverage the FlyBlackJet.com’s internet marketing infrastructure and operators network in the US market to deliver even greater service and quality to its discerning Caribbean-bound private jet clients. We look forward to seeing the benefits this acquisition will bring to the private charter clients of both AirStMaarten and ReyJet.”

AirStMaarten arranges inter-island private charter connections throughout the Caribbean, especially between the destinations of St. Maarten, St. Barths and Anguilla.  According to it's release, the goal of ReyJet is to create awareness among the AirStMaarten clientele to garner significant market share in the private jet charter business from the mainland of the United States to the Caribbean utilizing the ReyJet.com brand, the press release states.

Jones Brothers & Co. Air and Seaplane Adventures, in Central Florida used to be limited to flying scenic tours within a 25-mile radius of its base at Wooton Park under Part-91 provisions. Not any more. The company recently earned its Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 on-demand passenger air charter certification, meaning it can now fly unlimited distances for day trips and even multi-day excursions. Jones Brothers has been working with the city to earn the FAA certification for two years. Pages of documentation were prepared and submitted to FAA officials, its aircraft were inspected, flight logs examined and pilots screened and tested. Both aircraft and pilots had to demonstrate fitness and competence to ensure the highest safety standards are being met. Jones Brothers is based in Tavares, Florida, known as "America's Seaplane City". “We have a truly mutually beneficial relationship with the city, which is key to survival, growth and success,” Rob Galloway, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Jones Brothers, said in the release. “Without the city’s total support, we would not be here.

“Without a seaplane operator willing to offer sightseeing, single and multi-engine seaplane instruction and on demand seaplane charter flights, Tavares couldn’t live the brand ‘America’s Seaplane City.’” “Jones Brothers has partnered with over two dozen beautiful, waterfront resorts along the Atlantic coast, from South Carolina through the Florida Keys, and all the way up the west coast of Florida to Tampa and Homossassa,” the website states. Story credit Scott Callahan and Daily Commercial