Bond’s acquisition of National Jets’ charter certificate led it to select Fort Lauderdale as the global headquarters for its 2027 launch.
Fractional start-up Bond is setting the stage to take flight in early 2027 with several key moves, including what is expected to be the first of multiple acquisitions, three sources have told Private Jet Card Comparisons.
Bond marks the return of Bill Papariella as an operator.
It follows his 2022 sale of Jet Edge to Vista Global and his 2023 exit.
His first acquisition for Bond, previously unannounced, is the Part 135 charter certificate of Fort Lauderdale-based National Jets.
In October, Bond outed itself as the mystery customer behind the $1.7 billion order of Bombardier private jets.
In December, Axios reported that KKR-backed Bond had raised an additional $44 million.
That brought its war chest close to $400 million.
The National Jets deal is for its Part 135 operator certificate “with an accident-free history.”
Fort Lauderdale International Airport, where National Jets is based, is one of the busiest private-flight airports in the country.
(Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article included a reference to assets of National Jets that Bond purchased, which was not accurate and has been removed and updated. The purchase was for the Part 135 certificate. A representative of National Jets says, “[T]he FBO operations and the 145 (maintenance) remain with prior owners in the National Jets family.”)
The acquisition will support Bond’s fractional program, its core business.
As part of its ramp-up, sources told Private Jet Card Comparisons, Bond will manage private jets for its fractional owners.
However, aircraft management will be limited exclusively to support Bond’s fractional owners.
The second source says Bond is on track to manage more than a dozen late-model super-midsize and ultra-long-haul private jets in the coming months.
That includes Global 8000s, 7500s, 6500s, and Challenger 3500s.
The aircraft will not be available on the charter market to anyone outside its Bond customer community.
A spokesperson for Bond confirmed both the National Jets acquisition and the plan to manage aircraft.
The spokesperson emphasized that the aircraft management is exclusively for its fractional clients and not a separate business.
He said, “Some of our (fractional) owners have jets, and want to keep them because they fly them hundreds of hours per year. Our management will ensure that we can support them seamlessly with both our premium fractional ownership program and management of their aircraft.”
The spokesperson also confirmed that following the National Jets acquisition, Bond decided to make Fort Lauderdale its global headquarters.
Satellite headquarters are expected to be located in New York City, Beverly Hills, and Las Vegas.
Bond, per the Axios report, has now secured just under $400 million in financing.
The spokesperson said financing will be used in part for acquisitions “to support our plan to provide the most premium experience in the industry.”
National Jets is registered in Florida and holds its Part 135 charter certificate under Longhorn Gator, LLC.
The spokesperson declined to offer additional details or say if a formal announcement is planned.
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Bond marks Papariella’s return as an operator.
Papariella cut his teeth at Sentient Jet, Marquis Jet Partners, and then NetJets before Jet Edge.
In 2022, he sold the Los Angeles-based operator to VistaJet parent Vista Global.
By that time, Papariella had built Jet Edge into the 8th-largest U.S. operator based on charter and fractional flight hours.
After departing Vista Global in 2023, he launched the aircraft trading platform AeroVentures in 2024.
In June 2025, Bombardier announced a mystery customer had placed a firm order valued at $1.7 billion.
The order included 50 Challenger and Global private jets.
The deal carried 70 options, valuing the total package at $4 billion.
Bond was revealed to be the customer during the industry’s NBAA-BACE convention in Las Vegas last October.
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