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.”

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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Jet.Ai listed by merging with Oxbridge Acquisition Corp, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) becoming the second business jet services company listed in New York. A few blocks across Manhattan, Wheels Up and its advisers – investment bank Jefferies and law firm Kirkland & Ellis – were busy trying to secure the future of the first. Last Wednesday they announced a deal that brings in $500m of debt for 95% of the company.

Wheels Up’s listing in 2021 gave its large institutional investors a chance to free up their investments. Jet.AI’s gave its crowd funders a chance to do the same thing. “The driving force behind the SPAC deal was to bring liquidity to our 32,000 investors and to allow the company enhanced access to capital for growth,” says Winston.

Jet.Ai is more of a software company than a business jet operator. It has a fleet of four HondaJets and also has five Challenger 3500s on order. Winston says it uses these to inform its software business. It tries not to own the aircraft by selling fractional shares and they are all operated by Las Vegas operator Cirrus Aviation.

It definitely has some innovative technology. A few weeks ago, it soft-launched CharterGPT, which allows customers to book charter using artificial intelligence. It also has a new product to help operators off-set carbon emissions and one that automatically prices yields for diverting empty legs.

With Flight Club it wants to allow operators to sell shared flights. “The software sends the booking and files to the DOT [Department of Transportation] automatically and then you have to set up an escrow which we help with. Once you have done that you can sell by the seat,” says Winston. Jet.AI has already used this working with Cirrus Aviation and the Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team. It is also planning to offer technology allowing small operators to create their own jet cards.

Unlike Wheels Up, Winston does not want to buy operators and consolidate business aviation. He wants to help the 2,350 Part 135 charter operators in the US use technology to become more efficient. Especially the 80% who have fewer than 10 aircraft. The listing is about raising money to fund this technology. The merger between Jet.AI and the SPAC was originally valued at $45m, but Jet.AI’s first week has been tough. It listed at $10 a share. They were trading at $4 before the market opened today.

Wheels Up also listed at $10. Despite its ticker symbol of UP, on Friday it was $1.45. This is up $0.45 after Delta Air Lines and a fund run by Certares and Knighthead agreed to lend $500m to Wheels Up. Wheels Up will issue new stock to the three giving them 95% of the company. The CK Opportunities Fund 1 will lend $400m, with Delta providing a $100m loan.

The investors hope that this $500m – and the $151m in cash it had at the end of June – will be enough to get it to 2024 when it hopes to be cash flow positive – and have a positive adjusted EBITDA.

The three investors are happy with these projections. Certares focuses on investing in travel and hospitality and Knighthead has a strong restructuring focus. Together they took car hire firm Hertz Global Holdings out of bankruptcy in 2021.

Delta and Ed Bastian, its highly regarded CEO, are committed to Wheels Up. They already owned 20% after merging Delta Private Jets with the company in 2020. Bastian believes that in the long-term Delta will have a big advantage in being able to sell private aviation to its customers. This is not a new theory for the airline. It launched Delta AirElite in 1984 and expanded this in 2010 when it acquired Seagrave Aviation from Jim Seagrave. (He is working on taking flyExclusive, his next company, public). Bastian believes Wheels Up is the best way for his airline to access business aviation.

“The partnership will create new opportunities for Wheels Up to drive strategic, operational and financial improvements for its customers in the months and years ahead,” said Bastian this week. “Delta’s unmatched expertise in premium travel, customer loyalty, corporate sales, operational reliability and aircraft maintenance, combined with Certares’ and Knighthead’s experience and global reach, are expected to speed Wheels Up on its path to profitability.”

Dan Janki, Delta’s CFO, has been appointed chair of Wheels Up.

Bastian is also a huge supporter of Kenny Dichter, Wheels Up’s founder, who stepped down as CEO in May but is still a strategic adviser to the company. “I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Kenny Dichter, the visionary founder behind Wheels Up, for building the Wheels Up brand into a powerhouse in private aviation,” said Bastian this week. You could easily see Dichter coming back to Wheels Up with a more formal role – especially when growth becomes the focus again.

If Bastian’s bets are right: that Delta, Certares and Knighthead can get the company to profit by the end of next year and drive profits at his airline, you can expect to see other major carriers invest in business aviation. He will have secured his legacy as one of the greatest airline CEOs ever.

The bell for round two in Wheels Up’s stockmarket history has just rung.

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The company – formerly Jet Token – will soon list on the Nasdaq following a merger with Oxbridge Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

CharterGPT is designed to filter out the key facts that are needed to book charter. It then searches for individual aircraft available through the Avinode charter marketplace. CharterGPT then automatically contacts brokers.

“Customers can press a button and chat with it – which is fun – and then get serious charter quotes,” said Mike Winston, chairman, Jet AI Aviation. “But it is serious and we will keep improving it. We are not launching a series of robo calls to the industry.”

As an operator, Jet AI Aviation is not promising instant results. Instead, it tells customers it could take three hours to confirm. “We are not promising to be an Uber for jets or coming in to change the industry,” said Winston. “There is a lot of fine tuning to come on the back end and understanding human nature on the front, But even a decent improvement in productivity that is non-invasive and is well received is plenty good enough.”

Jet AI Aviation is set to launch a number of other products for operators. These include repricing dead-legs. “If you’ve got an empty leg, between two two points, but you wish to say originate and terminate at someplace nearby and sort of in the same direction, we can price it for you dynamically,” said Winston.

Flight Club – another new product –allow business jet charter operators (FAA Part 135 operators) to offer individual seats under Part 380 operator (which can offer escrow).  “The software sends the booking and files the DOT [Department of Transport] forms automatically and then you have to set up an escrow which we help with. Once you have done you can sell by the seat,” said Winston. Jet AI has already used this working with Cirrus Aviation and the Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team.

It is also planning to offer technology to allow small operators to create their own jet cards. “If you are a smaller operator – and 80% of these don’t have cards – we can give you the software to offer a jet card,” said Winston. “We are talking about the contracts, the system to log in and change hours and so on. We really want to help the smaller operators compete.” It also wants to simplify – and reduce the cost – of buying carbon credits for operators.

Winston said that Jet.AI is keen to work with operators – particularly the 2,350 Part 135 charter operators in the US where 80% have fewer than 10 aircraft.

“We are not going out there saying we can revolutionise everything or book charter within a minute,” said Winston. “But we can use AI to make the industry more efficient and it is literally in our name.” Jet Token never issued a token.

“There is the utility of using AI to take in requests from existing customers. One of the things that we learned with our card management platform was that our customers really would just prefer to text,” said John Church, chief technology officer, Jet.AI. “We are building that capability and that works well with all of our other products.”

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The investment will only happen after Jet Token is publically listed. The share subscription facility allows Global Emerging Markets to buy Jet Token common stock worth up to $40m over three years. Jet Token says it will control the timing and amount of the drawdowns under the facility. Jet Token has reserved NASDAQ ticker “PJ” and said it is planning for a public listing but has not yet confirmed when that may happen.

Jet Token was founded in 2018 and took its first delivery in 2021. It sells fractional shares in HondaJet Elite S aircraft, jet cards and has a charter app. The company aims to potentially develop the ‘jet token’ to allow for tokenised payment for private and ultimately even commercial air travel.

“It’s Disney bucks for jets,” Mike Winston, founder and chairman, Jet Token told Corporate Jet Investor (CJI). He said the company “won’t flip the switch” on developing the token unless it receives permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission, but that it’s a long-term goal. He explained how it could work: “Every dollar is a jet token, every jet token is a dollar. That would allow for some interesting things in payment automation and some novel solutions in aviation where barter is taking place, or where transactions can’t happen on the weekends, or where human beings are spending a tremendous amount of time processing what computers could.”

The company told CJI that it currently has over 34,000 investors and is in the middle of a $25m funding round, having previously raised $15m across two crowdfunding rounds. Jet Token is currently looking for more investors with StartEngine.com.

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