Aegis Air will use a wet-leased Aero regional jet to launch Miami-Caracas with plans to be ‘the JSX of Latin America and the Caribbean’.
A former executive with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and the founder of a medical and security membership provider are teaming up to launch Aegis Air.
The start-up wants to be “the JSX of Latin America and the Caribbean,” according to one of its founders.
It will begin with by-the-seat private jet flights to Venezuela.
Flights are due to launch on October 20, 2026.
Plans call for two round trips per week.
The flights will use Miami Opa-Locka Executive Airport and Caracas’s Simón Bolívar International Airport.
Frank Ornstein is CEO of Hospitality Investors Group.
He served as vice president of development at the luxury hotel group in the 1970s.
His Hospitality Investors Group is a hospitality development firm.
Projects include the Four Seasons Buenos Aires, InterContinental Toronto, and Hyatt Regency Cartagena.
Ross Thompson founded Covac Global.
It describes itself as a “medical repatriation membership program and the pioneer in pandemic evacuation assistance.”
Thompson says the plan is to build a network similar to JSX in the Western U.S. but across the Caribbean and Latin America.
He says the launch services “fills the gap” for bankers, business executives, diplomats, lawyers, and wealthy diaspora flying to Caracas.
To launch, Aegis Air is using an Embraer E135 regional jet from Los Angeles-based Aero on a wet lease.
The flights will operate as a scheduled Part 380 public charter.
All flights will be “FBO to FBO,” Thompson says.
Blade is using Aero to relaunch its BladeOne between New York and South Florida on a similar basis.
There will be two weekly roundtrips between Miami and Caracas, with southbound departures at 9 am and northbound returns at 2 pm.
Flying time is just over three hours.
Seats are $3,750 each way.
The aircraft has 16 leather seats in a 1×1 configuration.
The service will use private terminals to create a private jet-like experience on the ground.
American Airlines started flights from Miami International Airport to Caracas in April after a seven-year gap.
Its business class seats are currently selling for $958 to $1,840 each way.
Aegis Air expects to launch flights from Houston to Caracas soon, followed by service from Washington, D.C.
Thompson told the Palm Beach Post, “We’ve done a lot of security aviation, and when Venezuela opened up, there were a lot of requests for secure aviation down there, especially bearing in mind our experience in transporting executives in and out of hostile environments.”
He added, “This was kind of a natural fit for us.”
Regionally, he says there is an opportunity to launch flights to high-end resort destinations, targeting both hotel guests and homeowners in their residential communities.
Thompson says Aegis is talking to several operators for other services, as they are beyond the range of the Embraer regional jets.
He says it could range from private jets reconfigured like Aero, with forward-facing 1×1 seating, to an all-business-class Boeing 757.
Ornstein’s Hospitality Investors Group has projects in Turks & Caicos and Colombia with built-in demand, Thompson says.
Currently, the launch is self-funded, but Thompson says several investors are interested.
He says the goal is to have its own aircraft eventually.
In the meantime, he says plans call for high-end service onboard, including caviar service and partnerships with well-known restaurants.
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