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What’s nearly $50 million in unused flight credits worth when your jet card provider goes bust?
The answer looks to be less than customers had hoped for, but more than past bankruptcies and closures.
Yes, it’s another ‘good times’ private aviation hiccup in what has been described as the peak of the segment’s 10-year recovery. “Any Jet, Anywhere, Any time” reads the on-demand private jet charter page of the Swiss and German private jet management company PrivatAir which said it has filed for insolvency today.
While it has been a challenging run over the past six weeks for several air taxis and by-the-seat membership programs – Atlanta-based Imagine Air shuttering, Wijet putting its UK division into administration, Surf Air’s tax, and legal problems, JetSmarter rebooting its pricing approach – that hasn’t stopped others from announcing their intentions to jump into the space. ZED Aerospace said its Aura will launch a luxury by-the-seat scheduled private jet service flying nationwide by 2019, and AirChicago is pushing for a September launch of flights that would cater to Windy City travelers. Now Jeff Potter, who was CEO of Surf Air from February 2014 through June 2017, is listed as CEO of Tuxedo Air, which plans to begin flying this August.
As we reported here first in the wee hours of Saturday morning – just after midnight – we received a press release from Surf Air announcing it had terminated its agreement with Encompass Aviation LLC. The news took Encompass by surprise, and we reported that the Part 135 charter operator that had been flying Surf Air customers in California claimed it was owed significant money and planned to pursue legal remedies. Yesterday