By Alasdair Whyte, June 16, 2017, Corporate Jet Investor

Brad Stewart’s business card simply says CEO and chairman, XOJET. But he actually runs three different companies. There is XOJET, the fleet operator; the company’s Aviation Advisors, XOJET Private Client Services – the charter brokerage; and GMJ Shuttle, which operates corporate shuttles for Fortune 100 companies. He is now looking at adding aircraft management. “These are all very different businesses but they are connected and stronger together,” says Stewart. “At one level the brokerage and XOJET’s fleet operations are both about advising and serving customers. There is a real synergy there. XOJET and GMJ – no one ever focuses on GMJ – are also the best operators of aircraft in the world – with the highest return on capital in the industry. They do not have to be under the same brand to benefit from synergies. Stewart says that the three companies also benefit from scale including sharing a management team.

XOJet and its 41-aircraft fleet are included in the Floating Fleets section of FlightList PRO's multi-search platform along with all 232 floating fleet aircraft and 14 operators.  Get your free 30-day trial here.

He says that he wants XOJET to be seen as a trusted adviser for individuals and companies looking to fly. This can include using XOJET aircraft or a fleet of 1,087 aircraft that have been vetted by his team. In 2016 much of the charter brokerage was focused on smaller or larger aircraft than XOJET operates. The company says that light jet and heavy jet charter was up 22%. The three different businesses also give the company diversity. GMJ Shuttle runs corporate flights for large Fortune 100 businesses – a stable, profitable but slow growing division. Charter broking is profitable, relatively low-risk but low margin. XOJET – which owns its aircraft – is a riskier business with potentially higher rewards. The company was founded in 2002 as PCMT by tech entrepreneur Paul Touw (now launching charter market Stellar). In 2006 it was renamed XOJET and ordered 12 new Cessna Citation X aircraft. In 2007 it raised finance from TPG – one of the greatest aviation investors ever – and Abu Dhabi fund Tasameem. It used this cash to placed orders for new aircraft including one for 20 Bombardier Challenger 300 jets worth $450 million. By 2012 it planned to be operating a fleet of 127 aircraft worth $3.1 billion. In April 2008 XOJET announced its international plans. But then the global financial crisis hit. Demand for business jet charter fell sharply. The company was forced to change its business plan. Touw left (he has since launched Stellar a business jet charter marketplace). Stewart came in as adviser in 2010 and was promoted to president in 2013. “XOJET was effectively bankrupt in 2009 and 2010,” says Stewart. “The business model was not capable of surviving a terrible market so the company restructured in 2011 and 2012. It is much stronger now.” The company had sales of more than $300 million in 2016 and Stewart says that it has been profitable for three years. Part 1 of 3 By Alasdair Whyte, Corporate Jet Investor

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Source:  Alasdair Whyte, Corporate Jet Investor, 6/16/17 All 41 XOJet charter aircraft are available in the FlightList PRO multi-search platform which includes all 16,631 charter aircraft and 3,419 charter operators worldwide.  FlightList PRO is used by the most successful and experienced brokers and travel professionals in the industry; 80% of users have arranged charters more than 10 years, 25% more than 20 years. Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry.

By Mike Koshmrl, from Jackson Hole News&Guide, 6/7/17 Private aircraft owners will soon have more options for buying jet fuel and renting hangar space at Jackson Hole Airport. An application submitted by Wyoming Jet Center has spurred the airport’s board to find a second fixed-base operation to vie with Jackson Hole Aviation, a business that hasn’t had a competitor in decades. The decision to go with two FBOs was made at the airport’s May board meeting. Because of Federal Aviation Administration rules, there was not much choice in the matter, Director Jim Elwood said.

Editor's note:  Forbes.com contributor Doug Gollan has undertaken an analysis of jet card companies for his new business providing a paid analysis of jet card programs.

The first installment compared 18 jet card companies and programs. The second installment compared private jet cards to charter. The third installment is a who's who in private jet card & prepaid charter. The fourth installment compares jet card programs -  terms, availability and more.

The fifth installment below answers the question when using various jet card companies, "Where does your private jet come from?"

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Safety first. It’s the mantra of all of the aviation world globally. Like flying commercially, flying privately is safer than taking a bath. In 2015, nearly 5,000 deaths from drowning in one’s bathtub were recorded in the U.S. For general aviation, there were 384 fatalities. Still, when spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a private jet card or prepaid charter program, you probably want to know where the planes you and your family will be flying are coming from.

One advantage of jet card programs is the expectation of consistent standards in terms of sourcing the planes you will fly on. In some cases, your jet card provider operates the fleet you will be flying on, although during peak periods providers (including fractional operators) will charter planes from the open market to meet demand. There are about 7,500 planes in the U.S. available for charter under Part 135, either via brokers, jet card providers or directly from the operators, although often they are being used by their owners. Out of this fleet, executives estimate that there are a couple thousand planes that fit the needs of the charter and jet card market, both in terms of what customers will accept for age (a 40-year-old plane may be safe, but many consumers don’t want to fly on one), cabin condition, interior configuration, complete maintenance records for inspection, and availability. While using a company that owns or operates its fleet may seem like an advantage to one person, it's not a one size fits all market. Several brokers who sell jet cards I spoke with have significant in-house safety departments to oversee the planes they charter to fulfill your jet card flights. Read:  Who's Who In The Private Jet Card Market This is Part 1 of 2 parts on sourcing planes and also pilots. In Part 2, I will share what questions experts say you should ask providers about how they source airplanes, pilots and other safety related issues to consider. I found that for sellers of private jet cards and prepaid private jet programs, fleet composition broke down three ways: Some companies fulfill flights via fleets they either directly own or manage and operate. Others, like charter brokers, go out into the market to source planes, while some feature a hybrid model, owning or managing jets, but also sourcing them like a broker. Some programs have age limits on the jets they will offer you, and most use two industry rating services, ARGUS and Wyvern, which rate operators. Some have even further in-house standards and reviews. Below is an overview of responses when I queried companies about their sourcing standards. In some cases, it is based on information from their websites and other published data. I also refer to a survey by Business Jet Traveler of over 1,000 readers about various providers,  however, it doesn't cover all companies: Air Partner Air Partner says it has access to over 5,000 carriers globally through a preferred network of providers. The Air Partner Group has an internal Quality Management System focused on safety. This system, in addition to national safety expectations from the European and American Civil Aviation Authorities, systematically promotes (when available) companies that suit at least one of the following: Wyvern Wingman or Registered expectations, ARGUS Platinum or Gold Plus rating, IS-BAO certification, IOSA certification. Airstream Jets Airstream Jets employs a dual-layer approach to safety, according to the company ASJ only utilizes ARGUS Platinum/Gold rated aircraft and crews. Pilots and aircraft must also undergo additional in-house screening and clearance by ASJ management. Clay Lacy Aviation The fleet of Clay Lacy is made up of 90 owned jets and jets it manages for owners that have been audited and received the following ratings from third party safety auditing companies: ARGUS Platinum; Wyvern Wingman; and IS-BAO Stage 3. In addition, Clay Lacy has received the FAA Diamond Award and NATA Five Stars award recognizing excellence in maintenance procedures and training. When sourcing aircraft beyond its charter fleet, it uses the Wyvern and ARGUS systems to verify ratings of third-party charter operators. Clients can specify preferences related to the age of the jets they want to use. The fleet is mainly based in the Western U.S., particularly on the West Coast, and its Executive Traveler Program is targeted for customers in the region. Delta Private Jets Delta Private Jets has more than 70 aircraft, a combination of managed and floating fleet. All operators are ARGUS Gold or better, and DPJ last year said it was co-funding with the jet owners enhancements to the cabins of its planes, an unusual move for a management company. In the Business Jet Traveler survey of jet card programs last year, 70% of readers marked the operator Excellent/Very Good for Age of Aircraft, while 80% of readers gave it Excellent/Very Good marks for Cleanliness. Flexjet Flexjet operates its own fleet. It offers fractional ownership and leases as well as jet cards, which are available on its Challenger 300 and Phenom 300 planes. In the Business Jet Traveler survey, 77% of readers gave Flexjet Excellent/Very Good marks for Aircraft Age, with 88% scoring it in those two categories for Cleanliness. Jet Linx Jet Linx has 90 aircraft under management, and in addition to third party ratings, it has its own in-house compliance team that audits planes to ensure Jet Linx standards are being met. The company has an interesting model selling management and jet cards from 14 base airports and growing. Its jet card sales focus is targeted at customers in those markets. At each of these bases, it operates its own terminal with dedicated staff. Its current locations include Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Ft. Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Nashville, Omaha, San Antonio, Scottsdale, Tulsa and Washington D.C. JetSet Group Operators must have over $50 million insurance, must be ARGUS Platinum or Gold, with perfect safety and maintenance records. JetSuite JetSuite’s owned fleet, like the company, is relatively new. Its Phenom 100 and Citation CJ3 were all delivered new between 2009 and 2013. The operator received Excellent/Very Good ratings from 87% of Business Jet Traveler readers for both Aircraft Age and Cleanliness. Using planes that seat four seven passengers, JetSuite’s strength is with customers that want new planes, an owner-operated fleet and are focused on flights around two hours or less. Magellan Jets Magellan Jets doesn’t own aircraft but instead sources aircraft and operators that that have been pre-screened and qualified through the proprietary standards of its Magellan Jets Preferred Network. MJPN criteria uses data provided by ARGUS, Wyvern, ISBAO, and the Air Charter Safety Foundation, as well as internal due diligence by the company's flight support and compliance team. The team is comprised of professional pilots who understand best practices in safety for both aircraft and the crew. Magellan has a 42-point safety checklist for every flight segment, including information such as crew time in type of aircraft. You can customize a program around 10 different jet types and even specify a jet card program that guarantees WiFi. NetJets NetJets is the largest fleet operator with some 700 planes. NetJets offers fractional share and lease options. For its Marquis Jet Card program, there are 10 different plane types across the Light, Midsize and Large cabin categories. The company has an impressive operations center in Columbus, Ohio (I’ve personally toured it), and with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as its owner, and clients like Bill Gates, Rodger Federer and Tiger Woods, is one of the highest profile companies in the private aviation market. Nicholas Air Nicholas Air offers fractional shares and leases as well three different jet card products. It buys its planes (Pilatus PC-12, Phenom 100 and 300, and Citation Latitude) directly from the manufacturer, operates them and all aircraft are five years old or less. Solairus Solairus has a managed fleet of over 100 private aircraft nationwide with four programs broken into Very-Light, Light, Mid-Size and Super-Mid categories. Solairus holds the Platinum rating from ARGUS, the Wingman certification from Wyvern, and is one of only 100 operators worldwide to be IS-BAO (International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations) Stage Three certified. Private Jet Services (PJS) Group Private Jet Services (PJS) Group offers age differentiation within its programs. Elite aircraft are manufactured in the year 2000 or younger and are an average age of six years old. Priority aircraft may be “slightly older” but are held to the same safety standards. It has its own in-house Director of Safety who oversees its vetting program. PrivateFly PrivateFly doesn’t own or operate aircraft so it goes out into the market to source aircraft. It is an ARGUS certified broker. The company says, in addition to working with operators who meet industry safety standards, it conducts its own due diligence, including vetting insurance, airworthiness certificates, and aircraft inspections. Upon request, PrivateFly says it will share documents proving safety standards. Prive Jets Prive Jets doesn’t own or operate planes. It says the planes it sources “exceed” FAA requirements and all planes sourced for its jet card programs are manufactured in 2000 or newer. Sentient Jet Sentient is also a broker, and goes into what it describes as an “open fleet” to source planes, which are aircraft from the “top 25% of operators.” Sentient does auditing and has an advanced certification process as well as a field auditing team. Only aircraft that meet and exceed these standards are used. To become Sentient Certified, aircraft are reviewed based on their history, including maintenance reliability. They must pass a physical inspection that covers key safety elements in addition to the comfort and condition of the aircraft. In the Business Jet Traveler survey, 80% of readers ranked the company Excellent/Very Good for Age of Aircraft and 86% said Cleanliness was at an Excellent/Very Good standard. Star Jets International Star Jets International is a broker. It sources from over 5,000 private aircraft worldwide. Operators providing service for Star Jets clients must meet standards set forth by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for safety, security, and service, according to the company. VistaJet Malta-based VistaJet has only had a U.S.-based fleet since 2013. The U.S. fleet is now entirely operated by Jet Aviation, one of the leading management companies in the industry (Its parent General Dynamics owns Gulfstream). Globally, VistaJet owns 72 Bombardier Global and Challenger aircraft. The fleet is ARGUS International Platinum rated and Wyvern Wingman Level. In the survey by Business Jet Traveler, 93% of respondents gave it Excellent/Very Good marks for Age of Aircraft and the same score for Cleanliness. WheelsUp The Wheels Up fleet of King Air 350i (all 2013 or later) and Citation Excel/XLS (2000 or later) are operated by Gama Aviation.  They are ARGUS Platinum, Wyvern Wingman or have had an onsite audit completed by Wheels Up EVP of Safety. The King Air 350i is the defining aircraft in its fleet, more economical than jets, but well suited for missions up to 500 miles where a significant portion of the flight is the climb and descent, thereby minimizing the time difference versus a jet.  What does Wheels Up cost? Wholesale Jet Club Operators must be Wyvern Pass, ARGUS Gold or Platinum XOJET XOJET owns and operates a fleet that includes 42 Challenger 300 and Citation X aircraft. It also taps into some 1,000 more aircraft ranging from long-range Global Express to Very Light Jets and Turboprops. All planes must meet XOJET Charter Vendor Standards with ARGUS Platinum and Wyvern Wingman rated aircraft and operators. Some 83% of Business Jet Traveler readers marked XOJET Excellent/Very Good for both Age Of Aircraft and Aircraft Cleanliness. From Forbes.com article by Doug Gollan

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The FlightList PRO multi-search platform which includes all 16,631 charter aircraft and 3,419 charter operators worldwide.  FlightList PRO is used by the most successful and experienced brokers and travel professionals in the industry; 80% of those using FlightList PRO have been arranging charters more than 10 years, and a full 1/4 - more than 20 years.  Currently 30-day free trials are available. Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry.

Editor's note:  Forbes.com contributor Doug Gollan has undertaken an analysis of jet card companies for his new business providing a paid analysis of jet card programs.

The first installment compared 18 jet card companies and programs. The second installment compared private jet cards to charter. The third installment is a who's who in private jet card & prepaid charter.

The fourth installment compares private jet card guaranteed availability, charges, peak days and more:

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If you've been following along in my series of postings about jet cards and prepaid private aviation charter programs, you'll know that the results of my research cover over 80 programs. If I ever want to get a masters degree, you can guess what subject my dissertation will be about. In the meantime, it's the source for most of the information I am providing in these articles. That said, there are no rules and regulations of what delineates a jet card from pre-paid block charter. While a number of providers say guaranteed availability at your contracted price is required to have a “true” jet card, the fact is some companies market jet card-like products (They give you a nice plastic card with your name and their logo on it) without it having the guarantee on price and availability together. There are also sellers of prepaid private jet travel I’ve found (VistaJet, as an example) that don’t call their product a jet card, yet do guarantee availability at a contracted price.

It’s an important consideration because one reason to fly privately is the convenience of traveling when you want. During holiday periods or just busy days of the week such as Monday mornings or Friday afternoons, guaranteed availability does just that. It also means that the provider may have to go outside its own fleet if it has one, or pay the operator more than you are paying on an hourly basis to secure a plane for you. In other words, it might lose money on that trip, or in other cases, it has already laid out money with an operator to have access to planes when it thinks you will want to travel. Of the research I did, Air Partner, Airstream Jets, Delta Private Jets, Flexjet, Jet Linx, JetSet Group, Magellan Jets, NetJets’ Marquis Jet card, Nicholas Air, Prive Jets, Sentient Jet, Star Jets International, VistaJet, Wheels Up, Wholesale Jet Club and XOJET each provide guaranteed availability, although there are exceptions during peak periods, which is discussed a bit further on in this column.

"Those Who Know Use FlightList PRO." 80% of those using FlightList PRO have arranged charters for more than 10 years, and a full 1/4 - for more than 20 years.  Just $90/month for up to 3 users, 30-day free trials are currently available. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with companies that don’t have guaranteed access. They may have other attributes that are important to you, such as lower prices, or in the case of JetSuite, the lowest Daily Minimum I found in terms of flight hours, which they charge for just 48 minutes per day. Other providers have minimums of between 1-2.8 hours of flight time per day. It means if you take a single 45-minute flight on a specific day, with JetSuite you will be charged for 48 minutes of your hourly rate while on another provider it could be 60, 90 or even 168 minutes even though your flight was 45 minutes. If you do a lot of short hops where you don’t have a second flight in the same day, you definitely want to ask about the Daily Minimum. Making it a bit more complicated, Daily Minimums also vary by size of aircraft, with larger planes typically having higher daily minimums. This means if your short haul flying is with a group of 10 people, you are going to need to look at programs that offer larger jets (for example, JetSuite’s Citation CJ3 only seats 7). Another place you will find extra charges is taxi time, so the more flights you make, the more taxi time you will pay. The standard seems to be six minutes for departures and six minutes for arrival, meaning for each flight you take you will be paying for 12 minutes of taxi time. If your hourly rate is $6,000, you will pay $720 for each flight in taxi time. Yet again, this isn’t standard: Airstream Jets, Clay Lacy, JetSet Group and Wholesale Jet Club each say they don’t charge for taxi time. Several companies I contacted wouldn’t provide data about taxi time charges and Jet Linx only charges six minutes per segment, so if you had an hourly rate of $6,000 with Jet Linx, you would only pay $360 per flight in taxi time. Lead time in making reservations is another area to consider and again there are considerable variances. For example, Clay Lacy, JetSuite and PrivateFly don’t have a lead time requirement, but then again, none guarantee availability. Lead time for reservations with other providers varies from six hours with JetSet Group and Wholesale Jet Club (6 hours); Magellan Jets and Prive Jets (8 hours); Delta Private Jets, NetJets’ Marquis Jet Card, Nicholas Air, Private Jet Services (PJS) Group and Sentient (10 hours); and XOJET (12 hours) as the companies I found that offer guaranteed reservations less than 24 hours before you want to fly. During peak periods expect to make your reservations anywhere from 24 hours to 7 days before you want to travel. What is a peak period or peak day? Well, think holidays, however, for those companies that offer guaranteed availability it ranges from eight to 58 days out of the year. Hourly rates for flying on peak days are subject to increases, from no increase to as high as 40%. So again, if you plan to fly at specific busy times, you will want to study what each provider lists as peak days, which sometimes vary by program within a provider. In other words, it is a really good idea that on a piece of paper you write out the trips you expect to be taking during the next 12 to 24 months. I was really surprised when I read a survey by Business Jet Traveler that only 3% of jet card buyers use a consultant. One consultant, I talked to says he charges $3,000 to help with jet card purchases and $5,000 to assist with fractional buyers. If I was a serious buyer, to me, it seems like a good investment. Unless you have an in-house counsel, you're probably going to have your $600 per hour lawyer spend several hours reviewing contracts anyway. By the way, the typical way people select a jet card is a recommendation of a friend, a previous experience with the company or doing some Google research, which turns up mainly paid ads. I was speaking with one executive of a jet card provider, and his theory is that there is so much to compare and so many differences, it’s overwhelming. The rich person who is plunking down $250,000 more or less assumes or hopes that the company will be accommodating since they want to retain their business with renewals. It’s also a risk, and a provider that works well for a friend or colleague, might not be the best for you. From Forbes.com article by Doug Gollan

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The FlightList PRO multi-search platform which includes all 16,631 charter aircraft and 3,419 charter operators worldwide.  FlightList PRO is used by the most successful and experienced brokers and travel professionals in the industry; 80% of those using FlightList PRO have been arranging charters more than 10 years, and a full 1/4 - more than 20 years.  Currently 30-day free trials are available. Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry.

ATI Jet Charter Service Aims High

By David Crowder, El Paso Inc. El Paso has one high-flying charter service. Using Lear jets that take off from El Paso International Airport, ATI Jet hauls Hollywood stars, doctors and business executives around the U.S., Canada and Latin America. A renowned pilot himself, ATI Jet owner Lyle Byrum has lofty ambitions to turn the company into a national force with a fleet of 100 planes by 2023. He’s got a ways to go. Today, ATI Jet has eight, sleek Lears in service, 22 pilots, more than 400 regular customers and a lot more occasional passengers, according to Byrum. That makes the company one of the larger charter services in the Southwest.

“The Lear 60 is the world’s fastest, highest-flying midsize jet,” he said. It’s an expensive way to get around. Booking one of the eight-seat speedsters for the 3½-hour, 2,000-mile flight to Washington, D.C., and back will cost about $30,000, Byrum said.

ATI Jet's full fleet of 8 charter Learjets, with aircraft and operator details, is available in FlightList PRO.

When former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher needed to come to El Paso in 1990 to address the Republican Party, he picked her up in Dallas and says she insisted that he accompany her on the trip back. “What’s driven our charter business has been security; you don’t have to worry about security,” Byrum said. “No. 2, you can get here five minutes before you want to leave or an hour later. You’re not tied to schedules.” ATI’s more recent big-name passengers include the queen of Jordan, Tommy Lee Jones, Dennis and Randy Quaid and Julia Roberts, according to Byrum. ATI Jet’s repeat customers come from just about everywhere – except El Paso. “We only have 24 customers here in El Paso,” he said. “A few years ago there was a study done and we were No. 3 in the country doing charters to Mexico. A lot of people like to use us because we know our way around.

Byrum talks a big game, but as one close acquaintance said, “He’s the real deal.” He’s an Ysleta High School graduate whose family owned the second largest crane company in the Southwest in the 1960s and 1970s, Byrum Crane and Rigging. He became its general manager before his parents sold the company. “I personally erected half of Cielo Vista Mall,” Byrum remembers. Out of a job, he headed off to college, learned how to fly, became an instructor and took over a flying school and Cessna dealer in Midland. He’s been in aviation since, doing everything from helping the FAA write regulations to performing crazy stunts for movies. His business ventures also included Quicksilver Enterprises, a publicly held company that became the world’s largest manufacturer of ultralight aircraft from 1980 to 1996, selling more than 12,000 aircraft worldwide. Byrum made big money doing movies and TV as a Hollywood stunt pilot, stunt man and actor. He has the movie-set publicity photos with stars on the walls at ATI Jet’s headquarters to prove it. “I think I have been in more movies than any native-born El Pasoan other than Debbie Reynolds, and maybe her,” he said. Those movies and TV shows include “Arizona Dream” with Fay Dunaway and Johnny Depp, “Jackknife” with Robert De Niro, “CHIPS,” “Fantasy Island,” “A-Team” and “Remington Steel.” Then, there was “Howard the Duck,” the George Lucas-backed movie that bombed. In that movie, Byrum says he flew a plane through the open doors of a moving boxcar, tearing off the wings. The rise of computer graphics starting in the 1990s put a big dent in the demand for real air stunts, and after a series of business and personal setbacks, including the loss of his 12-year-old son to cancer, Byrum came back to El Paso. “I decided I wanted to come home,” he said. “I don’t know why; I can’t tell you. I didn’t do anything for two years. “Then, I went to work for this company, and then I bought it from Doc. Nelson and the Lowenfields.” Things were moving along for Byrum and ATI Jet’s small fleet of Lears when he made the mistake of going into business with Bob Jones, the CEO of the nonprofit National Center for the Employment of the Disabled, or NCED, in 2003.

"Those Who Know Use FlightList PRO." 80% of those using FlightList PRO have arranged charters for more than 10 years, and a full 1/4 - more than 20 years.  Just $90/month, 30-day free trials are currently available. 

Jones, a prominent El Pasoan who would later be convicted in the biggest corruption scandal and fraud against the federal government in El Paso history, put up $1 million to gain an interest in the company. It was supposed to be Jones’ money, but it wasn’t. It belonged to NCED, and the arrangement implicated Byrum and his company when the FBI learned about Jones’ fraudulent investments in 2005. But the greater fraud occurred at NCED during the 12 years Jones controlled the nonprofit, which existed to provide jobs for the severely disabled under set-aside contracts to manufacture boxes, military uniforms and chemical protective ware. Under Jones, NCED had grown to 4,000 employees with contracts in excess of $200 million a year when it was reported that the vast majority of its employees weren’t actually disabled. They were displaced clothing workers, many from Mexico. In all, the total of misspent federal dollars paid to NCED approached $2 billion, and Jones had amassed a fortune estimated at $50 million. He was convicted in 2011 and is still serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison. Byrum sued Jones, who had actually gained control of ATI Jet, for stock fraud, provided evidence to the FBI and was cleared of all wrongdoing. NCED agreed to pay for the bills Jones had run up using ATI Jet to shuttle Army generals and others back and forth from Washington and around the country. “For three years, he wasn’t paying me for what he was doing,” Byrum said. “The bill just got bigger and bigger. I barely survived. “After it was all over, I think I was the only guy that got paid back, and I got paid every penny.” Byrum said ATI Jet has bounced back, allowing him to buy two newer Lear 60 jets recently and to expand by using what he calls the Southwest Airlines model – using one type of aircraft requiring the same parts and training for pilots and mechanics.

He’s also kept up his interest in very fast cars and drag racing, which he still does at the age of 69. He owns El Paso Motorplex with a dirt track and drag-strip near Socorro where he was planning to add a 2-mile, $2 million paved road course for Formula 1 racing until last year. “I decided to keep expanding ATI Jet instead, so we put the project on hold,” Byrum said. Asked if he intends to go public with ATI-Jet to buy 90 more jets and become a national charter service, he said, “I’m planning to, yes – at the right time.” Article in El Paso Inc.

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The FlightList PRO multi-search platform which includes all 16,631 charter aircraft and 3,419 charter operators worldwide.  FlightList PRO is used by the most successful and experienced brokers and travel professionals in the industry; 80% of those using FlightList PRO have been arranging charters more than 10 years, and a full 1/4 - more than 20 years.  Currently 30-day free trials are available. Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry.

Editor's note:  Forbes.com contributor Doug Gollan has undertaken an analysis of jet card companies for his new business providing a paid analysis of jet card programs.

The first installment compared 18 jet card companies and programs. The second installment compared private jet cards to charter.

The third installment is a Who's Who in private jet cards, prepaid jet charter and private jet memberships:

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When you are buying a private jet card and with most prepaid programs, you are wiring the money from your bank account to theirs. With transactions often ranging from $100,000 to $500,000, it makes sense to know whom you are dealing with. From my research, I originally found 18 different companies that offer jet cards or prepaid programs, but since publishing the first article in this series, have identified six more, including Singapore-based Zetta Jet, New York-based JetSet Group and Wholesale JetClub, Boca Raton, Florida-based Airstream Jets, GrandView Aviation from Maryland and Colorado-based StraightLine Private Air, started by a founder of Exclusive Resorts. (Note: After publishing this article, I heard from a seventh company, Silverhawk Aviation which recently introduced a Jet Card for customers living within 175 miles of Lincoln, which includes Omaha, Kansas City, Des Moines, Sioux City, Sioux Falls.). In Part 2, I took a look at whether or not it even makes sense to buy jet cards and prepaid block charter programs versus just buying as you go via on-demand charter with some interesting perspectives.

"Those Who Know Use FlightList PRO." 80% of those using FlightList PRO have arranged charters for more than 10 years, and a full 1/4 - more than 20 years.  Just $90/month, 30-day free trials are currently available. 

In terms of the companies that you will be doing business with if you buy a jet card or prepaid program, they are about as diverse as you can imagine, and when you included related entities, span from under 10 employees to over 300,000. Air Partner, a U.K.-based company with its U.S. headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale is the oldest, with its roots in aviation dating back to 1961. The famous pilot and aviation entrepreneur Clay Lacy (he flew a DC-8 with "The Human Fly" standing on its roof) started his namesake group in 1968. Among the most recent entrants are Marquis Jet Partners founder Kenny Dichter, who after selling it to NetJets then launched WheelsUp in 2013, Singapore-based Zetta Jet which started flying in August 2015 and Blue Star Jets (famous for taking its name from the movie Wall Street) co-founder Ricky Sitomer, who started Star Jets International last year. Some companies are publicly owned, or divisions of publicly traded companies, including Air Partner which is directly traded in the UK, Delta Private Jets (a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines), and NetJets (which owns and sells the Marquis Jet card and is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway). Directional Aviation, which traces its history to 1981, owns two jet card players, Flexjet and Sentient. Its chairman Kenn Ricci started a small aircraft management company and has turned Directional into a multibillion-dollar enterprise which made news in 2015 when it placed an order for what potentially could be the next supersonic passenger jet. Earlier this year he won the Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur Award. Previous winners included the founders of FedEx (Fred Smith), Southwest Airlines (Herb Kelleher) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (Sir Richard Branson). Other bosses of note include Thomas Flohr, the founder of VistaJet who had the foresight to see the market from a global point of view, and Private Jets Services (PJS) Group founder and CEO Greg Raiff, who started the company with a focus on charters for sports team, live entertainment and political campaign charters before getting into the jet card segment. In addition to Lacy, David Sneed (Delta Private Jets) is a current commercial airline pilot for Delta. In his case, he was furloughed leading him to find a place in management although he now active again. PrivateFly founder and CEO Adam Twidell is a former Royal Air Force pilot and still flies private jets. He is married to his CMO, an ex Conde Nast executive, making them the only husband-and-wife team I came across. Nicholas Air founder Nicholas Correnti accumulated over 1,000 flight hours by the time he turned 16. JetSuite founder and CEO Alex Wilcox was a career commercial aviation executive working under two legends of that segment, Branson at Virgin Atlantic Airways and David Neeleman, who founded JetBlue and is an investor and on the board of JetSuite. The size of the companies varies dramatically. Delta Air Lines employs 80,000 people, with Delta Private Jets making up 450. NetJets has about 6,000 employees (parent Berkshire Hathaway has 367,000), Flexjet 1,300 and VistaJet 800. At least a half dozen of the companies surveyed employ under 100 people, however, part of the variance in size is that some companies operate the planes you fly on while others use a charter broker model and go into the market to source planes for your flight. In other words, they don't need the infrastructure to operate planes. One of the main drivers in choosing the right company and card for you is where you want to fly. Clay Lacy, Delta Private Jets, Flexjet, JetSet Group, JetSuite, Nicholas Air, PriveJets, Sentient Jet, Solairus, Wheels Up, Wholesale Jet Club and XOJET will fly you to over 5,000 airports, but you will be mainly restricted to the continental U.S. and Canada, in some cases including the Caribbean and Mexico as part of their service footprints. Air Partner and NetJets also offer you service in Europe. Jet Linx, Magellan Jets, PJS Private Jet Service Group, Star Jets and VistaJet have global programs. Of course, some programs can arrange charter pricing for you when you go outside their service area, although you will end up paying different rates and may be subject to one-way surcharges and other extra fees. In total, I found over 60 different variances in private jet card and prepaid private jet programs from they ways you get charged for taxi time to WiFi access, policies on flying your pets or unaccompanied children and perks such as luxury partnerships and access to big sporting events such as the Super Bowl or Kentucky Derby. I’ll be detailing the differences in subsequent articles, however, if you want to jump ahead you can find all the information from over 80 programs in spreadsheet format at PrivateJetCardComparisons.com. From Forbes.com article by Doug Gollan

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The FlightList PRO multi-search platform which includes all 16,631 charter aircraft and 3,419 charter operators worldwide.  FlightList PRO is used by the most successful and experienced brokers and travel professionals in the industry; 80% of those using FlightList PRO have been arranging charters more than 10 years, and a full 1/4 - more than 20 years.  Currently 30-day free trials are available. Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry.

Editor's note:  Forbes.com contributor Doug Gollan has undertaken an analysis of jet card companies for his new business providing a paid analysis of jet card programs.

The first installment  was a comparison of 18 jet card companies and programs.

The second installment takes a look at private jet cards, vs. charter, and includes comments and feedback sent in from charter and card jet card company executives: 

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There are quite a few aspects of buying private jet travel that makes it a very personal decision. In terms of buying private jet cards, there are variances in pricing, fees, daily minimums, the amount of insurance provided, how much you have to pay upfront, policies on taking your pets or sending your kids unaccompanied. There are differences in what type of catering is provided without charge, how many hours in advance you have to make your reservation as well as cancel and much more. Some programs guarantee WiFi. Others don't. Some require the bulk of your money in advance. Others have an initiation fee and you pay as you go. I know many of you are time poor and want to get things like choosing a private aviation provider done with so you can move on to more pressing matters. In fact, it is so complicated as I was gathering information for this series, there was so much I put it all together in a website PrivateJetCardComparisons.com which I created and own.

Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry. More information here-  FlightList PRO and About Us.

A few days ago, I published Part 1 of the series on buying prepaid private jet travel titled, “Before You Buy A Private Jet Card Read This.” This series is based on my research, and the fact that there are so many variances between programs (I found over 60 in the 75 programs I analyzed), it got so unwieldy I put them into spreadsheets and eventually the above-mentioned website, because truth be told, even covering the various differences in this series of articles isn’t as easy as looking at spreadsheets. After Part 1, I got a letter from a Forbes.com reader, which is below in its entirety. “One thing I do not see addressed (although possibly you had planned on doing so in future installments) is the fact that most Jet Card programs have an hourly cost far, far higher than the hourly rates a local charter operator would charge for the same class of aircraft.” “In addition, I would never tie up $100,000 to $150,000 or more in ‘prepaid’ travel; there’s an opportunity cost involved. I could be making more money actively investing those funds, rather than letting the Jet Card company make money off my prepaid funds. In my humble opinion, Jet Cards are a ripoff for the uninformed.” Having done considerable research on the subject and also having written about the on-demand market, I see them as chalk and cheese. On-demand is probably the right solution for the person who charters planes infrequently, maybe a couple times a year, and does same day trips starting and ending in the same place (where you don't have to pay for repositioning flights).  It also works better if you have a broker you trust to source the type of planes you are comfortable flying on. You can get a better rate chartering a 30-year old plane than a three-year-old aircraft for sure.  There are a number of other issues too, so I thought I would go back to several executives at companies that sell jet cards and in some cases also offer on-demand charter and put the above question to them. Answers have been edited for length and clarity. Michael Farley, the CMO at Private Jet Services Group (PJS) wrote back to me with his answer below: “Local operators can present savings from time to time. However, the reader better have efficient flying, meaning not one-way travel (or he will have to pay for the return flight to the base), not for a prolonged period of time (there are overnight fees or the customer pays to position the aircraft twice if trips are longer than a day or two), and of course, this is all based on the local operator having availability.  They might have one or two aircraft (but) everyone wants to fly on President's Weekend. Actually, everyone likes to fly on most weekends!  “If the client has flexibility in their schedule and can wait for availability, perhaps the limited fleet will not be an issue.  Ninety-nine percent of my clients do not have that type of flexibility.  I should also touch on mechanicals. A local operator is much more likely to leave you out of luck when experiencing mechanicals.  PJS provides equal or better with guaranteed recovery. Our national average (for recovery) is 1.5 hours.  “I always recommend my clients blend their aviation solutions. I provide cost analysis often for our clients.  After analyzing much of their flying, they often realize the cost comes out equal. They just haven't been flying with any guarantees of a national program.” Another executive from a jet card provider who didn’t want to be named responded this way: “Our jet card comes with $100 million in liability insurance, a certified network that is pre-screened with serious data sharing, a series of guarantees with the product, positioning costs baked in, 100% transparent rates, 24/7 Command Center, Chief Safety Officer, Peak Day availability, guaranteed interchange between sizes, customized client treatment programs, and then a series of ancillary benefits. And that’s just off the top of my head.” Jamie Walker, CEO of Jet Linx, which only sells jet cards as a consumer product to access its fleet responded this way: “Your reader is correct with his perspective of the cost for roundtrip flights, but not one-way flights. A local charter operator can provide a lower hourly rate, in most cases, for a roundtrip, but not for one-way flights. That said, the local charter operator is not guaranteeing the consumer availability of an aircraft at those lower hourly rates. The local charter operator is also not guaranteeing a standard of safety by an outside third party. So if the consumer does not require one-way rates or guaranteed availability and safety, the local charter operator may be a good option for them. As for the deposit, we agree, we’d rather them keep their money and invest it elsewhere too, which is why we don’t collect a deposit upfront, our clients pay as they go for the guaranteed jet card services we provide.” JetSuite founder and CEO Alex Wilcox also responded to my email with the reader's comments: “Comparing quoted hourly rates with jet card rates is often apples and oranges. A local operator with a charter plane may have a low rate of say $3,000 per hour, but not disclosed is the three-hour minimum, the requirement to get the plane back to the base, and the cost plus a mark-up for services like deicing.  So the Orange County to Mammoth flight, the local operator rate is $3,000 per hour but with a three-hour minimum, so really $9,000.  The comparable jet card might charge $5,000 per hour, but that's it. If you have to de-ice, the local FBO adds that on to your bill, maybe another $800, plus their markup. Now you used local but paid twice as much, despite the $3,000 rate. “If it's a same-day trip or overnight round trip, then the local charter operator may be cheaper. It would be $9,000 with the charter operator versus $10,000 with the card. Then the hygienic questions come into play: Who owns the plane? How much is the insurance coverage? Do the pilots really abide by duty time rules? Who maintains the plane? Who trained and employs the pilots? “Jet cards come with a level of diligence and hygiene absent in many mom and pops. It's not like Uber where we all can recognize an unsafe car or driver and get out. When you take off in a 1979 Lear 25 with an 80-year old captain and a First Officer not type rated in the jet, ‘You pays your money and you takes your chances.’” A former boss of mine was an owner with NetJets, and certainly, if you want to compare prices, NetJets is not the cheapest. On the other hand, if you visit their Columbus operations center it's very impressive. I always remember the salesperson telling my chairman, "You're flying on the same planes that Warren Buffett flies on." The comment was not about potentially sitting in the same seat as the Oracle of Omaha, but that when you flew with NetJets you could be assured they took safety seriously. My guess is this is an emotional topic, so I certainly welcome responses. Forbes.com makes it very easy for your to comment at the end of the article, and I will definitely respond! Author's Note - After I posted this story, Ronald Silverman, president of VistaJet USA sent me his response, which I am adding below: "While VistaJet is not considered a jet card (they do sell prepaid block hour programs), in our business model, the higher hourly cost versus charter is associated with the fact that VistaJet provides guaranteed availability of a consistent product.  Further, VistaJet owns the asset and thus the end user does not risk having their scheduled aircraft pulled from them at the last minute because the aircraft owner (typically an aircraft owned by a private UHNW or a corporation) requires the use of the aircraft for themselves, a scenario which I have personally been involved with on numerous occasions." Author's Note - David Sneed, COO of Delta Private Jets also followed up with his take on the question. He also noted that his card members get perks from Delta Air Likes, like Diamond Medallion status, complimentary SkyClub access and discounts when flying on certain fares from its parent airline: “Analyzing ad hoc charter pricing versus jet card pricing results in an apples to oranges comparison. This is because guaranteed availability and other benefits provided by a jet card are not available in the charter market. Delta Private Jets offers a jet card with guaranteed availability with as little as 10 hours notice and simple, all-in pricing locked in for up to two years, including landing fees, crew overnight expenses, fuel surcharges, deicing costs, and other fees common in the charter market." From Forbes.com article by Doug Gollan

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The FlightList PRO multi-search platform which includes all 16,631 charter aircraft and 3,419 charter operators worldwide.  FlightList PRO is used by the most successful and experienced brokers and travel professionals in the industry; 80% of those using FlightList PRO have been arranging charters more than 10 years. Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry.

Editor's note:  Forbes.com contributor Doug Gollan has undertaken an analysis of jet card companies for his new business providing a paid analysis of jet card programs. The first installment takes a look at private jet cards, their companies and programs: 

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There are many ways to fly privately. Two years ago I took an in-depth look at the on-demand charter market, which at the time was being pelted by new entrants making claims that hiring a private jet would be similar to ordering an Uber. My goal was to clarify how the process actually works and hopefully leave readers feeling a bit more educated about what is a pretty complex process. It was frustrating to read so many stories where the writer was basically just going off the press release enamored by tech jargon and missing what actually goes on, the considerable human element of business aviation professionals that makes the process actually work. If you don’t fly enough to own your own plane (typically at least 400 hours or more per year), and don’t even need to fly regularly by private aviation, the on-demand charter market generally makes sense. However, if you fly privately more than 25 hours per year, but still not enough to own your own jet or you don’t want to, the other two options are fractional ownership and private jet cards, which I will group together with prepaid private air charter programs, sometimes also called block charter. Fractional ownership is perhaps synonymous with NetJets, which is synonymous with Warren Buffett. With fractional ownership, you are actually buying a share of a plane and typically make a three to five-year commitment. Jet cards are more flexible, a bit like filling a debit card for future private air travel. Typically you are choosing either a dollar amount or a fixed number of hours, for example, $150,000 or 25 hours. According to Business Jet Traveler, a trade publication for jet owners and their pilots, jet cards are popular even with private jet owners who need additional lift or perhaps a plane that can fit a different mission, maybe a longer range jet, a bigger jet with more capacity or even a smaller plane that can get into out of the way airports or is more cost-effective for flights under two hours. Maybe you are using your jet during the week for business, but need to fly your spouse into your weekend house. Buy him or her a jet card. For all of the above reasons, jet cards and prepaid private air programs have become extremely popular, with estimated annual sales of about $2 billion in the U.S. There are some very good reasons to buy a jet card or a prepaid program over just chartering. Firstly, you lock in a specific hourly price instead of having to negotiate a deal each time. Secondly, like fractional programs or owning your own plane, most (but not all) programs guarantee you access with varying parameters for advance reservations and peak periods, typically ranging from four to 24 hours. Some of the programs have put together value-added benefits for their customers ranging from VIP access at sporting events to free nights at luxury hotels and even significant credits at high-end jewelers and fashion houses. I began to research what I thought would be a straightforward, thorough overview for Forbes.com on jet cards about nine months ago, similar to the piece I wrote about how on-demand private jet charter works. As I got started, I realized there were a lot more vagaries than I thought. As I discussed the story with various providers, it became clear for the similarities there were an array of differences. First of all, I found 18 companies that offer either the traditional jet card or some type of pre-paid private jet charter program, including Air Partner, Inc.; Clay Lacy Aviation; Delta Private Jets, Inc.; Flexjet; Jet Linx Aviation; JetSuite; Magellan Jets; NetJets; Nicholas Air; Private Jet Services Group (PJS Group); PrivateFly; Prive Jets; Sentient Jet; Solairus Aviation; Star Jets International LLC; VistaJet; Wheels Up; and XOJET. All together, they offered 75 core programs with even more opportunities for customization. Then as I spoke to executives at the companies and kept adding to a list of variances in the programs, any one of which could be important to you, I all of a sudden had a spreadsheet with over 60 different columns, including who owns the company, how large they are, when they were founded, the service area where you can fly, policies for flying your pets, pricing, surcharges, how much time you are charged for taxing, what type of catering is included, how they source their pilots, what type of experience the pilots need to have, what are their policies for service recovery, will you have WiFi, what type of toilet is onboard, what’s the minimum age for children traveling alone and so on. Needless to say, it is too much to cover in one column, but to make it a bit easier to digest, I will be covering the various aspects of buying a jet card in a series of articles. If you want to jump ahead, you can visit the site I put together PrivateJetCardComparisons.com where there are nifty spreadsheets so you can quickly compare any of the 62 points of differentiation across the 18 companies and their 75 different programs. Next I will cover who the players are and some basic background. Since the typical purchase price for a jet card starts at $100,000 (although you can get jet cards for $25,000 or less), customers like you often spend into the hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars on prepaid private jet programs, so I hope this and the subsequent installments will be helpful. From Forbes.com article by Doug Gollan

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The FlightList PRO multi-search platform which includes all 16,631 charter aircraft and 3,419 charter operators worldwide.  FlightList PRO is used by the most successful and experienced brokers and travel professionals in the industry; 80% of users have arranged charters more than 10 years, 25% more than 20 years. Air Charter Alerts by FlightList PRO, are the latest announcements in the private air charter industry about operators, brokers and charter aircraft, and geared towards active participants in the industry.

Charter operator GrandView Aviation, based in the Baltimore region, will add jet charters and expand to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., making it the only charter operator at the airport, the company said Monday. GrandView Jets will offer charter flights aboard three Phenom 300 jets, light business jets made by Embraer, said Jessica Bowling, GrandView's director of sales & marketing. These jets can carry eight passengers and fly about 2,000 miles.

"We found that the demand for charter jet and helicopter services is increasing throughout the region, particularly in the Washington, D.C. area," Bowling said in a statement. "Opening an office at Reagan National Aiport was a natural choice for expansion as we are one of the few operators with permission to operate in and out of [Reagan]." The new jets double GrandView's overall fleet, which previously consisted of three Bell 430 and Bell 407 helicopters, flying from Martin State Airport and the company's Pier 7 Heliport in Baltimore, Bowling said. The charter operator will have two of the three jets ready this week, and the third will come in the next month or so, Bowling said.

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Source:  Colin Campbell of the The Baltimore Sun, and Grandview Aviation Other Air Charter Alert about Grandview Aviation