Due to the continuing record demand for private aviation flights, leading private jet operator NetJets has said it will not be selling jet cards in 2022. It is focusing on its fractional jet and lease programs and continuing to maintain the service levels to these owners.
NetJets first paused sales of its jet cards last year as demand started to sky rocket coming out of the pandemic. Initially the pause was just on light jets, but this was soon extended to the whole fleet by late summer. Customers that wanted to buy a NetJets card could join a waitlist for when sales reopen, and NetJets has since reported having several thousand people on this list.
At the start of this year NetJets had said “we hope to return to selling our full product lineup by spring.” But with the continuing record demand for private aviation the company is still focusing on its fractional jet and lease programs.
The current message on the NetJets website says: “The Card Program is an important part of our business; however, to preserve the level of service our Owners deserve, we will not be offering the Card Program for the remainder of 2022.”
NetJets has started to offer a 25 hour a year lease program, but this is for a longer term than the jet card, with a 3 year minimum, so a purchase of at least 75 hours compared to the 25 hours on a typical jet card. NetJets told SherpaReport “Our re-structured 25-hour offering, a three or five year program, is designed to provide a product to those looking for a solution to fly with NetJets at a lower entry point. NetJets is making long term commitments in our fleet and infrastructure, and it is important we have long term relationships with our customers to support these commitments.” Towards the end of 2021, NetJets announced an investment of $2.5bn in new aircraft additions, saying it was growing its fleet "faster than ever", but clearly in this market, demand for private flights is continuing to out run the supply of aircraft.
NetJets added “While cards will not be offered for the remainder of 2022, we look forward to slowly and cautiously resuming sales soon, with the mindfulness of not sacrificing our service standards.”