Northern Jet Management changes name, expands jet card after SpeedBird merger

Following its merger with SpeedBird over the summer, Northern Jet Management has a new name, a new headquarters location, and two new jet cards.

Northern Jet is the new name of the combined company.

The new logo and branding, however, come from SpeedBird.

Most importantly, the combined entity is targeting an expanded geography of customers and has added a pair of new jet cards.

In addition to Northern Jet’s midsize card utilizing its Learjet fleet, there are now light and super-midsize offerings.

The light jet is a Citation CJ3 (interior pictured below).

For super-midsize, the featured aircraft is the Citation X.

Currently, the fleet includes 32 tails available for charter, with three Challenger 605s being added and additional Part 91 aircraft.

As part of the merger, headquarters have moved from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Orlando Executive Airport, where the company has a private terminal.

It also has private terminals for members in Naples, Florida, and Grand Rapids.

While previously Northern Jet targeted flyers transiting between select states in the Upper Midwest and the Sunshine State, SpeedBird CEO Chris Bull, who has taken that position at the combined company, is casting a wider net.

The 36-year-old Bull started and sold two media companies before launching a helicopter operator focused on agriculture.

The company is focused on clients who fit in with where its floating fleet currently flies.

That’s from Minnesota and Missouri south and across to the Northeast, focusing on north-south flying.

Former Northern Jet boss Charles Cox moves to chairman.

Cox and Bull own the combined company.

Northern Jet’s New Jet Cards

The new jet card program keeps the former program’s 60-minute daily minimum, including taxi time across all three category options.

It has a peak and non-peak callout of 72 hours and just 23 peak days.

There is a 15% surcharge for flying on the high-demand days.

There is also a surcharge of 10%-to-28% for flights to the U.S. Pacific Time Zone, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, except select islands in the Bahamas.

The fleet has WiFi, and Bull says jet card members are on-fleet unless there is a mechanical and it needs to source a recovery aircraft.

Members can interchange as available between categories.

Bull tells Private Jet Card Comparisons that the two providers should clock between 23,000 and 25,000 flight hours this year, which would rank it as a top 10 operator based on charter and fractional flight hours.

Before the merger, Bulls says neither company did much marketing, although that may now change.

Northern Jet is planning an evening hangar event at ORL in early December in cooperation with a local Aston Martin and Lotus dealer.