Over 80% of the Clay Lacy aircraft owners have already committed to making the transition to Solairus as the acquisition moves to closing.
Solairus Aviation’s mega deal to acquire Clay Lacy’s aircraft management and charter arm is going “extremely well.”
The agreement was announced in early August.
It is expected to close at the end of this month.
Solairus ranks as the 7th-largest U.S. operator by charter and fractional flight hours, while Clay Lacy ranks 17th.
However, Solairus founder and CEO Dan Drohan notes that when including flight hours from its Part 91 aircraft, the company recorded 85,067 hours in 2025.
That would rank it fourth, behind only NetJets, Flexjet, and Vista Global, according to ARGUS data.
Drohan tells Private Jet Card Comparisons, “More than 80% of the Clay Lacy aircraft owners have already committed to making the transition to Solairus, which puts us well ahead of where I expected we would be at this point,” adding, “We expect the number to land even higher.”
Drohan says, as expected, the battle to retain Clay Lacy clients has been stiff.
“Given how competitive the aircraft management business is, and how actively some of these clients have been approached since the announcement, I’ve been really encouraged by the response,” Drohan says.
About 60 support team members from Clay Lacy are expected to move to Solairus.
Clay Lacy is retaining its FBO and MRO businesses.
Drohan says that both teams have been working closely with the FAA.
The FAA’s most recent list of Part 135 aircraft shows 50 on Clay Lacy’s certificate.
Solairus currently has 144 aircraft on its charter certificate.
When the deal was announced, the count was 144 and 51.
Aircraft operating under Part 91 are additional.
Solairus will transition Clay Lacy Part 135 aircraft to its Sunset Aviation LLC certificate.
When all is said and done, Solairus expects to have around 500 private jets under management.
Drohan says, “The operational integration is also moving along well,” continuing, “There is still plenty of work to do between now and closing, but so far the response from clients, employees and the broader industry has exceeded my expectations.”
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