“Expanding our focus to light jets and turboprops allows us to leverage our extensive data and market intelligence on over 150 aircraft models to better serve aircraft owners and operators,” said Mike Dwyer, Managing Partner at Guardian Jet.

“Our clients benefit from our comprehensive technical data, market expertise and professional approach, ensuring that they receive the best value in their aircraft transactions.”

The new division will be led by Keegan Dwyer, promoted to sales director, Light Jets & Turboprops, focusing on the Northeastern US, and Andy Moss, who joins Guardian Jet as sales director, Light Jets & Turboprops, serving Texas, Central America, and Mexico.

The firm said that it will utilise its established data analysis and market research capabilities for the light jet and turboprop market, ensuring clients receive the best value in their transactions.

Keegan Dwyer brings a strong background in aircraft sales and valuations to his new role. Andy Moss joins Guardian Jet with proven experience in the light jet and turboprop market, having previously held leadership positions at Textron Aviation.

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The trio will help drive the company’s growth plans as part of the leadership team headed by founders Mike and Don Dwyer.

Michael “Doc” Dwyer, who joined Guardian Jet in 2009, helps set the company’s strategic direction and oversees aircraft acquisition, sales and consulting. A qualified pilot with more than 1,400 hours, he also promotes the brand around the world.   

With an extensive background in aviation and finance, Brazil native Bastos is Guardian Jet’s global head of sales and is responsible for maintaining relationships with brokerage and consulting clients.

Walter joined Guardian Jet in 2012 and has executed more than 150 aircraft sales and acquisitions, totalling more than $2bn in transactions.

Last year was the most successful year for new aircraft acquisitions in its 22-year history, according to the company. It also reported what it described as “unprecedented growth” in consulting services. 

“Despite facing a flat market landscape, we’re committed to reinvesting and expanding in every facet of the business,” said Mike Dwyer. “From bolstering our workforce to enhancing technological infrastructure and services, Guardian Jet has spared no effort in fortifying our position and driving growth.”

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Last year was the most successful year for new aircraft acquisitions in its 22-year history, according to the company. It also reported what it described as “unprecedented growth” in consulting services. “Despite facing a flat market landscape, we’re committed to reinvesting and expanding in every facet of the business,” said Mike Dwyer, managing partner. “From bolstering our workforce to enhancing technological infrastructure and services, Guardian Jet has spared no effort in fortifying our position and driving growth.”

Investing in staff

Dwyer pledged to continue investing in staff, technology and services in order to  increase market share and drive growth. Technology investments include its online aviation asset management portal the Vault and the implementation of its call centre omnichannel technology platforms. These investments are enabling the company to expand its global footprint and client services, said the company.

“Our expansion into new markets, including Latin America, Mexico, the West Coast and Europe, necessitated the scaling of call centre operations to accommodate increased demand,” said Dwyer. 

To boost its global business, Guardian Jet has made eight appointments. President Doc Dwyer has been appointed to managing partner, alongside Don & Mike Dwyer. Also, Gabriel Bastos, formerly vice president of Sales has been appointed global head of Sales.

Hired six new staff

The company has also hired six new staff: Meghan Dwyer, based in France,  has been appointed sales director, Europe, Amber Gardner is now regional sales manager, West of the Hudson and John Ballenger has taken up the role of regional sales manager, mountain. Three other new hires include: Greg Sydor as regional sales manager for the mid-Atlantic region and Wyatt Breedlove and Brantley Gandy join as aircraft market researchers from the aviation programme at Auburn University. 

“These key leadership changes illustrate our desire to empower the next generation,” said Don Dwyer, managing partner, Guardian Jet. “While my brother, Mike, and I aren’t going anywhere, we want to harness the talents and capabilities of our star performers now and continue to lay the foundation for our continued growth and sustainability in the coming years.”

Guardian Jet new roles – at a glance

Appointments

• President Doc Dwyer appointed managing partner
• Gabriel Bastos appointed global head of Sales

New hires:

• Meghan Dwyer, sales director, Europe
• Amber Gardner, regional sales manager, west of the Hudson.
• John Ballenger, regional sales manager, mountain 
• Greg Sydor, regional sales manager, mid-Atlantic region
• Wyatt Breedlove and Brantley Gandy, aircraft market researchers.

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Gracing our front cover are three G2 Vision Jets, flying in echelon formation over the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. CJIQ was beyond lucky to take the left-hand seat for a flight from Cirrus Aircraft’s base at McGhee Tyson Airport, TN. The OEM’s CEO Zean Nielsen tells us about 90% of Vision Jet sales are to pilot owners.

Investors are said to be attracted by its twin safety systems offered by the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) and Garmin’s Autoland technology. “The personal jet is intended for entrepreneurs, business owners and frequent travellers, who like flying and want to use the aircraft for business and leisure,” said Nielsen. “They want the flexibility to fly privately and the jet experience without the jet price tag.”

But charter companies and corporate flight departments are becoming more interested in the seven-seat personal jet, he added. One charter business operating exclusively Vision Jets is the Florida-headquartered charter business  Verijet. It’s CEO and chairman Richard Kane told us the aircraft promises to revolutionise private jet aviation at a price point as low as $550 per seat.

“Our ultimate goal is to empty the first-class cabin of airliners between hundreds of city pairs, where there is no direct service, for flights of less than 700 miles,” explained Kane. The key to exploiting that market is a light jet optimised for single pilot operations with low approach speeds of about 85mph, he added. “Low landing speeds of the Cirrus Vision Jet enable us to operate from about 5,400 airports throughout the US. 98% of us live within 20 miles of one of these airports – often without realising it.” These capabilities, combined with the aircraft’s overlapping safety systems, deliver low cost, efficient and neutral emissions air travel, according to Verijet. Read the profile of both companies in our features Private jets: This time its personal.

From private jets to the fuel that powers them – specifically SAF. Our feature SAF potential – Out of the frying pan, into the flier takes readers on a tour of Neste’s Rotterdam refinery. Neste takes used cooking oil and waste fats and turns them into fuel. As a banner in the office says: “Why waste good waste?”

About 300m litres (66m gallons) of SAF was produced last year – a 200% increase on the 100m litres produced in 2021, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). But there’s still a long way to go. Alder Fuels says that airlines used about 30bn gallons of fuel last year, with business aviation responsible for 1.6bn of that total.

We stay with sustainability, as Marie-Laure Gassier, BNP Paribas explains in her feature Banking on sustainable aviation how the Net Zero Banking Alliance aims to help business aviation cut its environmental footprint.

Our Aircraft Family feature turns the spotlight on the Dwyer family who run the Connecticut-based jet brokerage and consultancy Guardian Jet. After sharing a bedroom as boys, brothers Mike and Don Dwyer have built an aviation business based on meritocracy, which in 2018 celebrated generated $1bn in sales.

Another business aviation entrepreneur starring in the latest edition of CJIQ is Greg Raiff, CEO of Elevate Aviation Group. Raiff tells CJIQ how he plans to grow “the largest private aviation firm that no one has heard of”. He enjoyed a flying start in business aviation. In 1989, at the age of 18, he found himself sitting on the top deck of a Boeing 747 heading to the Bahamas. Raiff had personally sold every ticket on the flight. Read the full story here: Raising the profile of Elevate Aviation Group.

The focus stays on sales as we explore the potential to sell business jets un the Metaverse. Predicted to become a $800bn market by next year, the Metaverse offers great potential to business aviation, according to Jetcraft and other industry commentators. Read the full story here: Welcome to the Metaverse – The new frontier in jet sales. 

If you are buying or selling a business jet, check out Jet Data our handy updated guide to all the latest metrics, including list prices, for leading bizjets models.

Two CJI conference reports and our Day in the Life feature close this issue of CJIQ. Our CJI Miami 2022 conference report details how nearly 600 delegates thronged the conference to discuss the latest trends in private jet aviation. The conference featured 30 sessions spread over three days.

The CJI Dubai 2022 report detailed the boom time for business aviation in the Middle East market. Despite record demand no one at our conference, staged in the Fairmont The Palm in Dubai was complacent about the challenges that lie ahead.

Finally, this edition ends with our Day in the Life profile of aircraft valuer David Crick, MD, DavAir Group. This busy appraiser sets a hectic pace, spending up to three months away from home visiting clients worldwide. “Sometimes my Monday finishes on a Wednesday,” he tells us with a smile.

Read the full digital version of CJIQ123  here. Or register for your free hard copy of the journal here. And, if you would like to see a particular business aviation topic covered in our next edition, please email Mike Stones. Meanwhile, happy reading.

Above: At Neste’s Rotterdam refinery,  Editor-in-chief and co-founder Alasdair Whyte asked: what’s in the pipeline for SAF?

Below: Don and Mike Dwyer explain how they built the private jet brokerage and consultancy Guardian Jet.

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Four of the awards were given to university students to help pay for their studies, while the other six were awarded to young people already employed in the sector by IADA members for education, learning and leadership opportunities.

Atlanta-based brokerage Ogarajets had two young professionals receive scholarships. The other professional recipients work for Guardian Jet, Clay Lacy Aviation, brokerage Soljets and Eagle Creek Aviation Services.

“These great young professionals and students who are building their business aviation careers will be the industry’s leaders in the future, and the IADA team is so very fortunate to be a part of their stories,” said Wayne Starling, executive director, IADA. “We wish them well as their careers takeoff and they become the business aviation leaders of tomorrow.”

Those awarded the scholarships include:

• Andrew Dondelinger, Soljets
• Ashley Graves, Eagle Creek Aviation Services
• Sam Campos, Ogarajets
• Kyle Canna, Guardian Jet
• Myrthe Simons, Clay Lacy Aviation
• Luke Leonard, Ogarajets
• Tyler Kleinsasser, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
• Julia Alise Hummel, Auburn University
• Marcus Frank Gross III, University of Nebraska Omaha
• Paul Wynns, University of California San Diego

IADA established its Business Aviation Scholarship for university students seeking a career in the industry, specifically in aircraft sales, marketing, finance, legal and insurance. The association offers scholarship awards between $1,000 to $5,000.

One of the recipients, Luke Leonard, marketing manager, Ogarajets spoke about his scholarship at CJI London, which you can watch here.

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In his role, Garrymore is responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with Guardian Jet’s brokerage and consulting clients at the senior-most levels of corporate flight departments and family offices. He also manages vendor relationships and alliances to expand the company’s client base.

Mike Dwyer, Managing Partner of Guardian Jet, is delighted that Garrymore has joined the company. “Bobby G. is a great boost for Guardian Jet!” he said. “He brings us industry leadership at the highest level, and his experience with both corporate flight departments and high-net-worth customers is second to none. The other reason we’re so fortunate to have Bobby is his talent as a builder of great cultures. He certainly shares our DNA of putting the client first.”

Previously, Garrymore served as President of the Corporate Sales division for Wheels Up. Prior to that, he was President of Executive Jet Management (EJM), a subsidiary of NetJets (a Berkshire Hathaway Company). In addition to his executive role at EJM, Garrymore served in a variety of positions during 15 years at NetJets, including roles in management, sales and operations.

Speaking about his new job, Garrymore said, “I feel privileged and honored to be among such smart, dynamic, dedicated and caring people as I am here at Guardian Jet. It says a lot that in spite of the incredible pressure that comes with the growth and success Guardian Jet has achieved, the company and its employees remain committed to a ‘client-centric’ mission that sets them apart from other companies. I’m eager and excited to help in any way I can to continue this company’s leadership and momentum in the industry.”

In addition to his extensive aviation industry background, Garrymore holds a BA degree from Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. He is a commercially rated pilot and former certified flight instructor.

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He will be responsible for customers in the New York region.

“Matt Rosanvallon’s knowledge of, and passion for, the business aviation profession runs deep, as he has family roots in the industry,” explains Doc Dwyer, Vice President of Sales, Guardian Jet. “Combine that passion with Matt’s outstanding grasp of market evaluation and sales, and we feel that it’s a very winning combination for him and for Guardian Jet.”

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The responses were largely positive, although the feeling was that this recovery will be different from previous ones.

Pre-owned, interviewees felt, would be leading the way, and already there were signs that this market had stabilised. On the other side, they also felt that it would still be a few years before new aircraft deliveries were back on track.

You can watch the full video below. If you are unable to view it on YouTube, you can click the following link to watch the interview on YouKu.

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Guardian Jet, the Connecticut based aviation brokerage firm, has signed up to Down-Route, the revolutionary expenses management and hotel booking App, for its team as they work across the globe. Guardian Jet has five aircraft on the static display at NBAA and it was here that the deal was done today.

Down-Route recently announced that it is ready to launch its unique, free to use App following the tremendous support it has received from over 70 aircraft operators, managing over 2000 jets, who are excited about the potential of real time control of expenses reporting and hotel bookings in one paperless solution.

Down Route CEO, Andy Hudson commented on the sign up: “We have had many aircraft operators signing up to use Down-Route and the fact that Guardian Jet, a leading aviation brokerage firm, has also seen the benefits Down-Route can bring to its growing organisation shows that we are truly an essential tool for the whole business aviation industry”.

Don Dwyer, Managing Partner of Guardian Jet commented: “We have employees that work across the globe so having the ability to control expenses and hotel bookings easily, with information fed straight back to our head office is extremely attractive to us. Technology that frees up more time for our team to concentrate on our customers is critical and we are very much looking forward to using Down-Route”.

Down-Route consists of a web-based platform on which managers and businesses can set up accounts and, as it is a cloud-based system, there will be no software for account holders to download or install on their office systems. The employees and crews then download an App onto the devices they have with them while travelling which gives them access to the services via their company’s online account.

The Down-Route App will be available to download on both Apple and Android devices and will be continuously developed after launch to include features such as the incorporation of social media Apps and table and theatre booking.

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After 27 years at Bombardier, Trevor Lambarth has started work at Guardian Jet, the US broker and consultancy company. It is only the fourth company he has worked for.

One of the best known aircraft salespeople in Europe, Lambarth sold his first business jet, a LearJet 31, in 1993.

He is Guardian Jet’s first person in Europe – a market that few expect to grow this year.

“We launched in 2002 in the depths of the recession and believe there will always be opportunities in tough markets,” says Michael Mikolay, executive vice president and director of operations. “We are confident that there will be customers across the region and are thinking long-term.”

Lambarth is also confident. And he should know.

He has delivered more than 150 business jets, worth more than $3 billion at list prices. “It is a tough market and there is flow of aircraft out of Europe but there are still people buying aircraft across the region,” says Lambarth.

“More than just wanting to open up Europe we were really looking for a world class teammate. The fact that he is based in Europe is a bonus,” says Don Dwyer, managing partner at Guardian Jet. “I feel like we won the Trevor Lambarth sweepstakes.”

Guardian Jet is not the only company hiring for the long term. ACASS has just announced that it has hired Frank Ercolanese as its president. Ercolanese spent 25 years at Bombardier.

US law firm Pillsbury has also hired Paul Jebely as a partner to set up its first Hong Kong office.

“Demand for business jets is down in parts of Asia, but to paraphrase the great BB King,” says Jebely. “The thrill has gone, some markets have gone away from me, but if you don’t invest now you will be sorry someday.”

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