April 3, 2024
PlaneSense is launching its first jet fractional share program, but here’s why there will be no jet cards.
While New Hampshire based fractional share provider PlaneSense recently moved into the jet age by taking delivery of its first Pilatus PC-24 twin-engine jet, don’t expect the company to begin offering jet cards. Last year, PlaneSense added four Nextant 400XTi jets as a prelude to its first jet fractional program that is being built around the six PC-24s coming online by the end of next year.
The company, which has “several hundred” shareowners according to CEO George Antoniades has pushed its service are for the jet program as far west as New Mexico and Colorado. For more than two decades the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 had been its exclusive aircraft.
Selling jet cards is popular with fractional programs. NetJets, Flexjet, Nicholas Air and Executive AirShare all offer jet card programs in addition to selling fractional shares and leases. However, Antoniades says jet cards are not in the future for PlaneSense. According to the boss, he believes having card customers takes the focus away from his core target of fractional owners. Eschewing jet cards, he says, also reduces those peak days he has to charter for supplemental lift. He estimates supplemental lift charges are in the low single digits as a percentage of total flights.
In terms of shares, a 1/16th share for the PC-12 starts at $348,000, and the PC-24 is priced at $685,000. Occupied rates are $1,167 and $2,360 per hour, respectively, not including fuel surcharges, and management fees are $6,000 and $9,200 per month.
Turboprops have become a popular focus of jet cards in recent years led by Wheels Up which has based its membership program on the King Air 350i, Executive AirShare, Nicholas Air, Concord Private Jet, Luxury Aircraft Solutions, PrivateFly, Paramount Business Aviation, Silverhawk Aviation, StraightLine Private Air and more recently Unity Jets, each of which sells jet card programs for turboprops. You can compare over 250 jet card and turboprop programs by subscribing to Private Jet Card Comparisons.
