2 Startups: Jet Edge International & Startup Black Jet
Private jet business is booming.
We feature Jet Edge International & Startup Black Jet
Only the sound of the wind on the runway as we walked through.
A private jet company based in San Francisco, went over the essentials: the iPod dock; the touch screen to control the lights and movies; the leather swivel seats cost $30,000 to replace; the satellite phone; the Nespresso machine; the cabinet with the Oreo cookies and Kistler chardonnay.
At a time when industry surveys show that travelers are fed up with epic lines at commercial airports, when lounges are overflowing with airline-branded credit card holders, and first class is but a shadow of what it was in the golden age of air travel, companies are making private jets easier to come by. What had been an industry that relied on full or partial ownership of planes is opening up, with jet operators and owners like XOJet offering more flexible programs, and brokers who don’t own planes working in tandem with them to offer seats — in some cases through apps — within striking distance of the price of a first class ticket. The industry has literally changed 180 degrees in the last five years,” said Bill Papariella, an aviation executive who worked at NetJets, Marquis Jet, and Sentient before becoming a founder and president of the operator Jet Edge International. Companies that survived the recession have made pricing simpler and now offer more membership options, based on where, when and how often you fly. And a handful of new industry players are making booking a private jet as easy as ordering up a private car.
Even so, can you afford to travel private? The answer depends on what type of flier you are. (How often do you fly? Where do you fly? How rigid is your schedule?) Different companies have different pricing structures, but one of the most common models is a yearly or monthly membership fee plus the cost of your flights. That can run you anywhere from several thousand dollars a year to several hundred thousand dollars a year.
At one end of the spectrum are operators like Jet Edge International, who say their private jets are the purview of those with net worth in excess of $50 million. “We specialize in the 1 percent of the 1 percent,” Mr. Papariella said.
At the other end of the spectrum are a handful of start-ups that want to change that, like BlackJet, which is enabling first-class fliers to graduate to private travel by selling individual seats to its members, who currently pay a $2,500 annual fee. The company, which began putting clients on flights late last year, finds jet owners or operators that will transport 6 to 14 travelers at a time in markets like New York, South Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas (and next up, Chicago and Washington, D.C.).
“Our client is the mass affluent as opposed to the 1 percent of the population,” said Dean Rotchin, founder and chief executive of BlackJet. “It’s bringing it from the rock star level down to a practical tool for the mass affluent.”
For instance, a recent search for a last-minute, one-way first-class ticket on a commercial airline from New York to Los Angeles was about $1,400 to $2,000.
On startup BlackJet, the trip would be about $3,600, in addition to the membership fee. There are no TSA lines but passengers’ names are checked against no-fly lists.
You must be flexible, though. When you book a flight on BlackJet (which can sell individual seats because as a broker it does not need an FAA operating license.
Keep goin.
comments