Jet Blue, with its innovative pricing strategies, marketing, and amenities, was able to turn commercial aviation on its head when it was founded nine years ago. Now, one of the men responsible for Jet Blue’s success, is looking to repeat the coup, this time with his sights set on private aviation.

Alex Wilcox is the founder of JetSuite, which hopes to introduce a novel model for the industry. JetSuite will act as a broker of Embraer Phenom 100 very light jets (VLJs). Buyers then lease the jet back to JetSuite, who manage the plane, hangar it, and charter it out for on demand flights through the western United States. The owners of the jet are guaranteed $25,000 a month— it’s written into the lease with JetSuite— whether the plane is chartered or not. According to Wilcox, this represents a 30 percent return on investment for owners. In addition to receiving an allotment of 25 flight hours per year. Wilcox emphasizes that those hours are completely free—“no fuel costs, no pilots fees, free: F-R-E-E.” Owners can also purchase additional flight time above their allocation for a discounted rate.

Private Jet Travel For Less

According to JetSuite, the result is that owners are able to afford private jet travel at a rate that rivals first class on commercial carriers. Owners will also enjoy the tax benefits that can be claimed with a depreciating asset such as a jet. And instead of paying hefty pilots’ bills and maintenance fees, they’ll receive a check paying you every month. JetSuite is hoping to commence its operations by June of 2009, with a fleet of Phenom 100s and eventually Phenom 300s. Those plans will depend, of course, on buyers financing those planes. Embraer’s Phenom 100, which is expected to receive FAA certification as early as this summer, has a unit cost just under $3 million. JetSuite considered a number of light jets and very light jets, but opted for the Phenom 100 both for the plane’s excellent performance specifications and the support of a major manufacturer in Embraer.

JetSuite is commencing its operations in the western United States, going against a trend of recent start up charter and air-taxi services which have looked to the Southeast and North East as more natural markets. But while Wilcox acknowledges the lure of the east coast as a start-up market—after all two thirds of the country’s population resides there— the distance between major cities on the west coast actually means that charter flights are a more viable travel option there. Not only that, but 80% of air traffic from regional airports in the western US is between destinations with the western US, far higher than on the east coast, reducing the stress on JetSuite in having to reposition planes outside of its base of operations. Wilcox hopes that within a few years, JetSuite will expand across the continental United States.

So What’s the Catch?

It would seem that JetSuite is presenting a compelling, if untested business model. The nearest parallel that comes to mind is that of a condo-hotel: a developer finances the construction of his business by selling individual constitutive units of that business (either planes or hotel rooms) to individuals, which are then leased back to the developer in return for a portion of rents and their use. On paper it looks to be a win-win, but then again condo-hotels have left some investors less than satisfied. Nevertheless it could deliver a potential shakeup of an industry Wilcox believes is in need of “cathartic change.” If JetSuite can manage to get off the ground, so to speak, it looks to be an exciting new player in the field of private aviation.