flyExclusive, a leading provider of private jet charter and jet cards, has introduced Platinum Jet Club. This new option allows members to access a completely fixed price program on light, mid size and super-mid size jets, with hourly and daily fees locked for 12 months.
flyExclusive Background
As one of the fastest growing private aircraft operators the company now has over 90, mainly Cessna Citation, jets in its fleet and in 2022 was the 5th largest North American operator. In addition to adding planes flyExclusive has also been building out its infrastructure to provide in house maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) services. For instance, they have their own painting and coating facility and an aircraft interior renovation and refurbishment facility, all of this is designed to give the fleet a consistent feel.
The company launched their Jet Club program several years ago. This is a jet card type product, but unlike more traditional jet card programs the charges are made up of a flat daily usage fee, which varies by size of aircraft and then an hourly usage fee. This pricing structure makes shorter flights more expensive, but for daily usage of more than two hours the pricing becomes much more economical. There is also a monthly membership fee of $1,000. They are also adding fractional ownership of the Citation CJ3+ with the first of these planes arriving in 2023.
Towards the end of last year flyExclusive announced plans to become a public company.
Platinum Jet Club
The new Platinum Jet Club program is based on the same daily and hourly rate structure that applies to the regular Jet Club, but there are no monthly membership fees, no peak day premiums, and fixed pricing for a 12-month period. In other words, Platinum Jet Club members have the same pricing every day of the year, with 365 days of guaranteed availability.
The Platinum program has the same regular call out time of 96 hours as the main Jet Club, with a longer call out notice period of 10 days for travel on the 20 Peak Days. Also like the regular Jet Club the Platinum members can access planes in shorter notice periods eg in under 96 hours, for a fixed premium.
To join the Platinum program members pay a deposits of either $250,000 or $500,000.
The daily usage rates start at $8,000 on a light jet such as a Citation CJ3 or Citation Encore, and $4,170 per hour flown. And the program also provides access to mid size and super-mid size aircraft.
Brad Blettner, Chief Revenue Officer at flyExclusive explained that the Platinum Jet Club is designed for customers who “want ease of use and want to know what rates are going to be for the next 12 months.”
In the more traditional Jet Club there is some movement in pricing as the hourly rate fluctuates monthly with fuel prices, but the Platinum program has fully fixed, locked in rates. The regular Jet Club also has premium pricing on Peak Days.
Brad Blettner, stated that he already has a client who is looking at buying both the Platinum Jet Club together with a regular Jet Club. This customer is planning to use the Platinum program for most of their Peak Day travel, so they don’t have to pay any Peak Day premium, and then use the regular Jet Club for the rest of their travel. At SherpaReport we frequently see people buying multiple private aviation products and then picking the right one for each individual mission, depending on which one is the most cost effective or most suitable for the particular trip.
“Jet Club continues to grow in popularity and with a unique membership structure truly crafted with our members flying needs at the core,” said Brad Blettner.