Private Jet Card Comparisons - Know Before You Buy
Compare over 250 private jet card membership programs by 65 variables in 1 place
In the most recent sign that demand for private flights is bouncing back, Nicholas Air says it is adding two new from manufacturer Embraer Phenom 300Es to its fleet.
The company says the move is based on current and future demand. Flight hours for this month are already at 120% of 2019 levels with five days left to go.
In an industry that is often in turmoil or controversy, since founding the company in 1997, Nicholas Correnti remains the CEO nearly a quarter-century later.
While companies in the sector seem to come and go, executives and customers say continuity, a personal approach, and a state-of-the-art fleet have helped Nicholas Air thrive in a competitive market.
Mississippi-based Nicholas Air is adding range to its jet card fleet with at least one Bombardier Challenger 300. The company already operates the Citation Latitude, Phenom 300, Citation CJ3, Phenom 100 and Pilatus PC-12.
The move adds about 500 miles to the nonstop range of the Nicholas Air fleet. According to Conklin & de Decker, The Challenger 300 has a range of 3,527 miles at capacity and 3,843 miles with four passengers. Nex up is the Latitude’s range of 2,825 and 3,302 miles, respectively.
Tradewind Aviation, an operator of both private charter and by-the-seat semiprivate charter flights, is launching its first jet card program under the name Goodspeed across its fleet of 23 Pilatus PC-12 aircraft.
Targeting business travelers hopping from one meeting to the next and leisure travelers headed for vacation homes or weekend getaways, and families with children participating in traveling sports leagues, Goodspeed offers fixed-rate, one-way pricing so you don’t pay for repositioning flights.
Where does your jet card get the airplanes that will fly you?
There are over 50 companies that offer jet cards and while some buyers care only about price, as in the lowest hourly rate, at least at the beginning of their search, I find most subscribers end up taking a more holistic view. For one reason, just looking at the hourly rate can be misleading. Some jet cards quote rates inclusive of the 7.5% Federal Excise Tax while others aren’t. Some programs also have surcharges for fuel, CPI escalators, extra fees for using busy airports, and many have varying peak-day surcharges. If you fly out of your primary service area, your fixed rate may no longer apply, and you may have to pay ferry fees and extra charges, so while some programs have global service areas, others are regional or national.
(Editor’s Update Sept. 12, 2019: Netjets, Magellan Jets and Alliance Aviation have added Phenom 300 jet card programs since this article was published.)
The Phenom 300 and now the 300E have proven their value at the cash register, leading the competitive light cabin private jet market for more than half a decade. In the jet card segment, both JetSuite and Airshare (formerly Executive AirShare) have both made a bet on the Phenom 300 in place of other similar aircraft.
NetJets has previously said the jet card flying accounts for about 20% of flights with its core business of fractional shares and leases taking up the lion’s share. Currently, it has five jet specific cards covering light, midsize, super midsize and large private jets, a combination card that enables buyers to split time between two types, a cross-country card and an Elite card, which includes FET and fuel surcharges in pricing. There are no turboprops in the NetJets fleet, but it has a number of aircraft not in the jet card programs.
