Jettly members pay a monthly or annual membership, but no commission on their charter flights

Start-up private aviation charter broker Jettly this week launched a new, no-commission model for selling on-demand charter flights. The six-person operation is headed by Internet entrepreneur Justin Crabbe, and he says, by stripping out the commission, he hopes to make buying private jet charters easier. Right now, he says, with the amount of markup or commission brokers tack onto the price from operators, consumers are inclined to call multiple brokers in an attempt to “get the same airplane for less money.” 

U.K.-based online focused charter broker Victor has taken a similar approach with a fixed markup and recently said it has grown sales to $39 million last year with the goal of hitting $60 million for 2017. Earlier this month it said it had raised $10 million from BP Investments to help fund its continued growth and expansion.

Jettly’s model goes even further. For each flight or trip, there are no commissions or service fees paid by the consumer. In fact, Jettly serves as a matchmaker for members. It provides them five to 10 options for each quote request. Members can see the operator and details on aircraft. While members use an online interface, Crabbe says Jettly sources jets in the same way as traditional operators. Once a member selects an operator for his or her trip, the actual contract is between the consumer and the aircraft operator.

Jettly generates revenue two ways: Consumers sign up for a membership providing up to three charters per month for $370, or annually $3,552. Its business program, which allows 10 charters per month, is priced at $670 per month or $7,152 per year. You can make as many requests as you want and each quote can include multiple legs. On the other side, operators pay on a joining fee on a similar scale.

Since going live about two weeks ago, Crabbe says he has signed up about 10 members. He says the company signs up operators based on demand. Since operators only have to sign up one month at a time, and Jettly comes to them with a customer who has selected that operator for a confirmed trip, he says the response so far has been positive, and he has about 10 operators signed up for this platform as well.

Crabbe sources inventory from Avinode and other B2B databases across the full availability of Part 135 and other aircraft approved for on-demand charter. It is up to the customer to ferret out the quality of each jet and operator in the quotes provided, therefore, he says, he is targeting regular private aviation users who are familiar with the market.

If Jettly is successful the savings for members would be significant. Over a year, assuming an average of three charters costing $50,000 per month, the customer would pay $600,000 for charters during the year. The Jettly membership would be $3,552 on top of that. Assuming a 10% markup through the typical broker model, the consumer would have paid additional $60,000.

Crabbe says if an operator fails to execute a trip, Jettly will help with re-quotes. “I want it to be like Amazon Prime, ridiculous value for a very low fee,” he says.