After acquiring Worldwide Jet and Carlisle Air Group, Hassan Chowdhury says more acquisitions and a pre-owned fractional program are coming.
Hassan Chowdhury says he has been busy since quietly acquiring Worldwide Jet and Carlisle Air Group earlier this year.
He says both operators are scaling up their fleets.
The 29-year-old says more deals, including acquisitions and financing, are in the pipeline.
The charter fleet, which he says will reach 33 aircraft once all aircraft undergo conformance, is more than double the 15 jets he inherited.
Chowdhury projects that the fleet will reach 70 aircraft by the end of the year.
Worldwide Jet ranked as the 23rd-largest U.S. private jet operator by charter and fractional flight hours in 2025.
He says a key move will be the launch of a pre-owned fractional program.
Chowdhury says his business acumen stems from his family.
His parents have owned successful cosmetics-related manufacturing businesses.
After moving to New York City 11 years ago, he attended Berkley College.
During COVID, he began acquiring and renovating short-term rental properties in Florida.
He later expanded to the Hamptons, the French Riviera, and Dubai.
However, he backtracked on a start-up he launched called Bouge Villas as a rental platform.
Public records in Florida show that Bouge Villas LLC was incorporated in April 2022 and dissolved in September 2023.
Chowdhury says he quickly determined that he was better off as a property owner, leaving property management and marketing “to big successful companies who were already doing it.”
A report in Traded earlier this week shows Chowdhury as the buyer of a $2.4 million single-family home in Miami.
Chowdhury values his current real estate holdings at around $50 million.
Chowdhury’s first foray into private aviation enabled him to pivot to his current position, he says.
In 2023, he announced the launch of MetaFly Club as the “first company to launch a membership program via NFTs.”
Chowdhury says he is a lifelong aviation enthusiast and saw private aviation as a natural fit for his rental properties, as many of his customers fly privately.
A press release at the time promised, “Members will enjoy discounted pricing on jet charters and have premium access to empty leg flights at competitive rates, as well as crowdfund among each other to share private jet rides.”
While MetaFly Club never took flight, Chowdhury started a traditional brokerage, which he rebranded as Reserve Jets last year.
Chowdhury says that, as an offshoot of his charter brokerage, he acquired three airplanes, which led him to Worldwide Jet.
After numerous conversations with Worldwide Jet, which had exclusively owned its fleet, he convinced the owner, Clifford Russell, to manage his jets.
Earlier this year, while visiting Russell and his family in Arizona, Chowdhury says he learned Russell was considering an offer to sell the company.
Chowdhury says he convinced Russell to let him buy Worldwide Jet, promising not to change the culture, keep employees, and grow the company rather than see it swallowed by another entity.
At the same time, he bought New Hampshire-based Carlisle Jets, although the deals weren’t announced until Chowdhury posted about them on Instagram earlier this week.
Chowdhury says he plans to keep the senior leadership in place.
“People want service, reliability, and safety, and we have that,” he says.
Chowdhury says his role will focus on financing and growth, including acquisitions.
So far, he says, he has relied on bank financing, a trust fund, and family resources.
Reserve Jets will be the consumer brand, with Worldwide and Carlisle as the operators.
The most recent FAA data shows that the two operators have 22 aircraft on their charter certificates.
There are eight Challenger large cabin jets, six large cabin Gulfstream jets, four Falcon 2000s, a trio of Globals, and a Hawker 850.
While the Reserve Jets website shows a jet card, Chowdhury says that won’t be the main thrust.
“Companies sell prepaid jet cards to raise cash,” he says, “We don’t need cash.”
Instead, he says, the plan is to compete in the fractional space with pre-owned aircraft.
“When you buy a share in a fractional program, you are not flying on the airplane you bought, you are getting access to a fleet which varies in age,” Chowdhury says, adding, “We plan to refurbish the airplanes so you have that new airplane feel, but since you are buying a 2004 or 2005 airplane, it is going to cost a lot less money.”
READ: Private Aviation M&A Deal Book
Chowdhury also defended the Traded VC post, announcing his acquisitions, which valued the deals at $600 million.
He says Worldwide Jet and Carlisle Air Group will have combined revenues of around $140 million in 2026, and Reserve Jets will exceed $70 million.
He says the group, which also includes an aircraft brokerage, has a projected EBITDA of $68 million this year.
The company has around 200 employees, he says.
Find the perfect solution for your private aviation needs
Save Time. Buy Confidently.
Receive an apples-to-apples comparison of programs that meet your needs from more than 500 jet card and fractional options covering 65 points of differentiation and over 40,000 data points.
