Each time a jet card customer requests a trip, it is now cross-referenced with thousands of empty legs from hundreds of operators to find simulated alternatives. The new trip may then be offered to the customer for a substantially lower cost than their fixed hourly jet card rate.

Founder and executive chair Mike Winston said: “Jet Card customers can now take advantage of AI to score a Reroute and save money. Empty legs rarely align with customer needs but reroutes often do. A reroute is a slight tweak to the flight plan of an empty leg that is booked at a price in between an empty leg and a new charter. 

“Our Reroute AI software firstly identifies opportunities, secondly suggests a price to the operator, and lastly allows for a smooth rerouted booking.”

The post Jet.AI reveals AI-powered empty leg tool appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.

The company said the proposed purchase of Bombardier aircraft is valued at approximately $280m based on today’s list price.

“Today’s announcement marks a significant step forward in our fleet expansion plan. Following our successful $25m order with HondaJet, this new $280m order with Bombardier for larger jets would represent a substantial increase in scale,” said Mike Winston, founder and executive chairman, Jet.Ai.

“We anticipate deliveries to commence in 2026, allowing ample time for pre-sales and operational preparation. Despite being a mature cyclical industry, private aviation continues to offer attractive returns on capital investment.”

It is worth mentioning here that Jet.Ai announced its intention to acquire five Bombardier Challenger 3500 super-midsize jets in December 2022 to sell fractional interests.

Non-recourse financing is a specific type of loan where if Jet.AI can’t repay the debt, the lender can’t go after their other assets (like other airplanes they own).

It’s a riskier loan for the lender, so Jet.Ai is likely to have agreed to pay a higher interest rate for the financing.

The post Jet.AI secures non-recourse financing for fleet expansion appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.

The company’s Software App and Cirrus Aviation Charter revenue, which includes bookings made through their CharterGPT app and Cirrus Aviation, jumped to $2.4m, a significant increase from $1.0m in Q1 2023. This increase reflects a more than 200% rise in bookings through CharterGPT and increased utilisation of their Citation CJ4 managed aircraft.

Moreover, management and other services revenue, including income from managing and chartering customer aircraft, also saw a substantial rise, reaching $800,000 compared to $334,000 in the same period last year.

Jet Card and Fractional Programs revenue grew slightly to $677,000 from $548,000 year-over-year.

On the other hand, Jet.AI’s cost of revenue doubled to $4m from $2m in Q1 2023. This rise is primarily due to increased fleet utilisation, use of third-party charters, and fees associated with charter flights.

On the bottom line, the company posted a net loss of $3.2m translating into diluted earnings per share of -$0.28.

However, the company’s cash and cash equivalents during the first quarter decreased by $1.5m of $0.6m compared to end of 2023.

During the quarter under review, the company released the National Jet Card Program using third party aircraft and announced partnership with FL3XX to integrate its DynoFlight carbon removal platform.

In addition, the company also raised a $16.5m convertible preferred from Ionic Ventures LLC.

“Last quarter we doubled sales year over year and substantially improved bottom line margin, up 17% points adjusted for option expense. In addition, we closed on the $16.5m sale of convertible preferred shares to Ionic Ventures LLC, with the goal of positioning the company well financially for the foreseeable future,” said Mike Winston, executive chairman and founder, Jet.AI.

“On the software side, we launched Reroute AI for operators and did a key integration deal for DynoFlight with a major software provider to the private jet industry (FL3XX). Challenger 3500 fleet financing conversations remain ongoing.

The post Jet.AI soars in Q1 with 105% revenue increase appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.

“With DynoFlight, operators on the FL3XX platform can now transparently and easily remove from the atmosphere every ounce of carbon emitted by a given flight,” said Mike Winston, executive chairman, Jet.AI.

Scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2024, the integration is expected to empower private aircraft operators utilizing the FL3XX platform to gain effortless access to DynoFlight.

“We are very excited to welcome DynoFlight to our platform. Integrating DynoFlight aligns with our mission to offer cutting-edge solutions to our extensive global customer base. This move is a significant step towards simplifying and improving the process of carbon offsetting, thereby contributing to more sustainable aviation practices,” added Paolo Sommariva, CEO, FL3XX.

The post Jet.AI, FL3XX to integrate DynoFlight carbon offset platform appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.

However, overall revenue decreased by 72% year-over-year from $11.9m, mainly due to the absence of aircraft available for fractional sale in the third quarter of 2023 compared with two HondaJets sold in the same quarter of 2022.

Operating highlights showed that the company during the quarter entered in advanced discussions with Bombardier for the purchase of Challenger 3500 aircraft. Moreover, Jet.AI also launched AI-powered charter booking platform, CharterGPT.

“The third quarter saw the release of CharterGPT, the first AI charter broker, DynoFlight, the first carbon removal credit API for aviation, and the realisation of triple digit revenue growth adjusted for the fact that we had no aircraft inventory left to sell. Talks are in an advanced stage with Bombardier to supply us with the award-winning Challenger 3500 super-midsize aircraft for our fractional sales pipeline. From here it’s about delivering on the balance of our software roadmap and building the fleet,” said Mike Winston , executive chairman, Jet.AI.

“Based on numerous conversations with members of the trade at the NBAA trade show held in mid-October of this year, we now believe that our customers will adopt Reroute first before switching on other elements of our four-component operator platform. Reroute reconstitutes otherwise empty flights into new retail priced charter. With that in mind, we’re going to focus development resources on deepening the functionality of Reroute ahead of its release in December. The planned release of FlightClub and JetCardGPT are now expected to take place in the first quarter of 2024. We remain laser focused on rigorously balancing accretion and dilution as we look to deploy incremental capital at high rates of return both at the software level and into the fleet.”

Software application and on-fleet charter revenues soared 445% year-over-year to $1.8m. During the quarter, Jet.AI sold 122 prepaid flight hours under its jet card and fractional programs and recognised $0.7m of revenue for 113 flight hours flown. The on-demand private jet travel provider recorded deferred revenue of $1.2m.

In addition, the company also sold 50 prepaid flight hours, amounting to $273,000 and recognised $527,000 of revenue for 93 flight hours flown. The company said the increase in flight hours flown period over period is a direct result of the increase in its aircraft.

Cost of revenue increased from $0.7m in Q3 2022 to $1.8m in Q3 2023 due to increased fleet size, flight activity, and start-up costs.

The company recognised an operating loss of about $4.3m, which was an increase in loss of approximately $2.3m. The increase in operating loss was primarily due to the decrease in gross profit and the increase in general and administrative expenses resulting from the increase in non-cash stock-based compensation expense following the business combination.

Overall, this translated into loss-per-share of $0.61 versus loss of $0.45 in same quarter last year.

Jet.AI completed a business combination with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Oxbridge Acquisition Corp in August this year. The combined company has about $300m in cash on hand, which will be used to fuel Jet.AI’s growth initiatives.

The post Jet.AI services, software revenues soar in third quarter appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.

Today (Wednesday August 9th), Wheels Up will report its second-quarter results. The first-quarter announcement was overshadowed by the departure of founder Kenny Dichter as CEO. This time the numbers will get much more scrutiny.

Many will focus on how much cash it has. At the end of March, it had $363m. It could be getting close to breaking debt covenants. We will find out more soon.

The company had record first quarter sales and its new strategy of focusing on two regions looks sensible, but 12 weeks is not a long time to implement it, especially for a membership business. Wheels Up does still have some supportive large investors – especially Delta Air Lines, which owns 20%.

Wheels Up launched in a market when investors were happy to support what were called pre-profit companies (and many pre-revenue ones). It was unlucky that this mood changed before it became profitable.

But it does make you ask: why would any business aviation firm want to go public today? Surprisingly, a lot of companies do.

Last week Volato, the fractional operator with a fleet of 25 aircraft, announced plans to merge with a SPAC. Jet AI (formally Jet Token) is likely to become listed this week. North Carolina charter operator flyExclusive is still in the process of listing. Set Jet, which has access to a fleet of five Bombardier Challenger 850s, is hoping to merge with a SPAC by the end of the year.

These are very different businesses. And have very different motivations in listing. (Pictured is the New York Stock Exchange building).

Matt Liotta, Volato’s founder, accepts the risks in becoming public, but says there are real benefits. “One of the benefits of being public is the increased transparency for customers and prospects,” he says. This is also a good thing for a market where it is difficult to get hard data.

They are going public at a time when demand for business aviation is cooling from its post-lockdown highs. Private Jet Card Comparisons says that hourly jet card rates fell 1.3% in the second quarter of this year, after a 5.2% drop in the first three months.

“The overall market is cooling,” says Liotta. “Charter traffic is down and private traffic is down but fractional is up compared to last year. We are not a typical fractional company and are seeing strong demand.”

Kenn Ricci’s FlexJet has stayed private. In October last year Flexjet announced a merger with a SPAC sponsored by long-term investor and partner Todd Boehly. This was cancelled in April citing market conditions.  Last week Flexjet acquired Flying Colours to bring more maintenance – especially completions – in-house.

Flying Colours received strong interest from a mixture of strategic and financial investors (it was advised by Jefferies). The fact that it was not listed is arguably an advantage when closing deals.

Spare a thought for Surf Air Mobility which became public through a direct listing on Thursday July 27th at $4.60. It is now at $1.50. Surf Air is a very different business – relying on small aircraft and certification of electric aircraft – but now is not a fun time to be running it.

SPACs get a lot of criticism but the fact they typically launch at $10 is useful.

The post Why would anyone want to list? appeared first on Corporate Jet Investor.