The VIP Seat: Private Aviation News

A tragedy deserves an investigation, not an internet verdict. This week, Jessie and Preston address the fatal Learjet 60 crash and the wave of speculation that followed, from pilot-age criticism to sweeping claims about the aircraft. They discuss why waiting for the NTSB matters, the challenge of responding to viral misinformation, and the broader safety conversations worth having without drawing conclusions about the cause.

Then, the Wheels Up debate continues: do six factory-new Phenom 300Es, improving operating metrics, and another round of Delta support point to a turnaround or a longer road to becoming Delta Private Jets all...

The aircraft is real. The deal is real. The wire instructions? That’s where things get expensive.

This week on The VIP Seat, Andrew from Wingform joins us to unpack how fraudsters infiltrate aircraft transactions, monitor email threads, and wait for the closing-day rush to redirect the money.

We get into spoofed emails, AI voice cloning, sensitive documents shared a little too casually, and why “the escrow company handles that” deserves a closer look. Plus, what aviation’s just culture could teach the transaction side about sharing fraud stories before someone else becomes...

What should private flyers know before putting money into a jet card—and what does it take to build a brand they can trust? Preston Holland and Jessie close out this week’s Beyond the Booth series at NBAA-BACE 2026 with Kenny and Robert of RealJet, recorded onboard the very bus that hosted the conversations.

The discussion tackles customer trust, prepaid jet cards, and why the team believes financial backing, transparency, and leadership track records matter more than celebrity endorsements or splashy advertising. Kenny and Robert share their perspectives on matching customers with the right aviation solution, recognizing offe...

How do you make the economics of light jets work? Preston Holland sits down with Matt Wild and Joe Crivello of Jet OUT at NBAA-BACE 2026 to explore the company’s answer: a single-type fleet, a network of local bases, and a day-based co-ownership model built around how customers actually use their aircraft.

With its CJ4 Gen2 fleet order complete, Jet OUT shares how it approaches aircraft selection, manufacturer relationships, and growth in an environment shaped by supply-chain constraints and rising capital costs. Matt and Joe explain what separates their Part 135 co-ownership and co-lease programs from traditional fractional ow...

What happens when Honda partners with an established private jet operator to build a fractional ownership program? Preston Holland and Jessie Naor sit down with Curtis Edenfield of Thrive Aviation at NBAA-BACE 2026 to unpack the partnership and why it’s about more than adding HondaJets to the fleet.

Curtis shares how Honda approached Thrive, what went into the extensive due diligence process, and how the companies are building a new fractional offering around the HondaJet and Challenger 3500. He explains why Thrive plans to start with a regional, West Coast operation, prioritize operational efficiency, and grow deliberately rather th...

Preston Holland sits down with Luis Barros and Randall Mize of Leviate Air Group for a candid conversation about buying, selling, managing, and growing in today’s private aviation market. Recorded at NBAA-BACE 2026 for The VIP Seat’s Beyond the Booth series, this episode explores how Leviate connects charter, aircraft sales, management, and advisory services under one roof—and what it takes to make that ecosystem work.[ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws]

Luis and Randall discuss younger buyers entering the ultra-long-range market, the relationships behind off-market aircraft deals, and why consolidating charter operators is harder than it looks. They also p...

SyberJet brought the lasers. Operators brought their frustrations with FBO fees. And we came home from NBAA-BACE 2026 with a few questions that didn’t get answered onstage.

This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie and Preston unpack Trevor Milton’s SyberJet relaunch, from the mock-up and ambitious avionics plans to the reaction when Preston questioned the presentation online. We’re here for innovation. That doesn’t mean we’re skipping the questions about execution.

Then, we get into the FBO special event fee debate: why unpredictable charges leave operators and brokers explaining bills they didn’t set, and w...

Is NBAA-BACE still an airplane-buying show, or has it become a B2B convention with a static display? And is charter demand really growing, or are bots just getting better at requesting quotes?

Ahead of NBAA-BACE 2026 in Las Vegas, Jessie and Preston trace the show’s roots from a small group of corporate aircraft operators to business aviation’s biggest annual gathering. We discuss how the event has evolved, why OEM participation keeps shifting, and whether manufacturers are overlooking the people who actually influence aircraft purchases: brokers, management companies, pilots and maintenance professionals.

Then we unpa...

521 kilos of crystal meth on a 1986 Learjet 55B, a rise in rogue pilot incidents on the flight deck, and Fortune taking another swing at business aviation. This week Jessie and Preston break down the Meth Jet bust in Laos, what the flydubai attack says about pilot mental health and cockpit security, and why bonus depreciation is no more a private jet loophole than it is a bulldozer loophole. We also look at IADA's tougher Certified Aircraft Broker program and the latest expedition hoping to find Amelia Earhart's Electra on Nikumaroro.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome to The...

What do private jets and catheters have in common? Apparently, a publicly traded parent company.

This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie Naor and Preston Holland unpack Catheter Precision’s rebrand as Flyte Aviation, trading under VJET on the NYSE American—and the unusual combination of private aviation and cardiac technology. Then, they tackle Kissimmee’s proposed camera-based landing-fee system, the legal fight over delivery drones, and Global Jet Capital’s forecast for $247 billion in business-jet transactions through 2030.

In this episode:

The FAA has ended the single-pilot exemption pathway for several legacy Cessna Citation models, creating an immediate operational and economic issue for affected aircraft owners, contract pilots and charter operators.

In this episode of The VIP Seat, Jessie Naor and Preston Holland break down what the FAA’s move actually means for Citation II, Bravo, V, Ultra, Encore and Encore+ operators and why the CE-525 CitationJet family is not affected. They discuss the agency’s safety rationale, allegations of noncompliance in the exemption ecosystem, the impact on staffing and operating costs, and the possible implications for aircraft valu...

Are Steve Varsano's viral phone calls real or staged? We finally asked. In part two of our conversation, recorded live from the A319 cabin mockup at The Jet Business in London, Flexjet Chairman Kenn Ricci and Steve Varsano go through the deal from the buyer's side. They cover who pitched it (over lunch, of course), why Kenn calls it 80% acqui-hire, how Flexjet plans to move 30–50 pre-owned aircraft a year, and Kenn's three types of M&A deals, including the two he never wants to do again.

First, the news. Canada joins the bonus depreciation club with PM Ca...

Is private aviation really one industry anymore?

In this special edition of The VIP Seat, Kenn Ricci argues that the interests of charter operators, aircraft manufacturers and FBOs are increasingly pulling in different directions — while the organizations lobbying Washington have traditionally tried to represent them all.

Kenn gets into why airlines have access to a robust market for PMA replacement parts while business aviation operators face far fewer options, including manufacturers’ reluctance to provide the technical data needed to develop alternatives. He also takes aim at soaring FBO landing, handling and special-event fees — costs...

This week on The VIP Seat, we unpack who is gaining control across business aviation—from airport policy and FBO economics to charter platforms, premium terminals, and cockpit safety culture.

Chris Rocheleau is leaving NBAA to lead Airports Council International–North America, putting a former FAA leader at the helm of the organization representing airport operators across the U.S. and Canada. We look at why that move matters for airport access, infrastructure, FBO power, fees, and the future relationship between airports and business aviation. Rocheleau is set to become ACI-NA president and CEO...

Trump is taking aim at Bombardier again—threatening to stop the Canadian manufacturer from selling aircraft in the United States unless it builds more of them on U.S. soil. But is this a real policy move, another tariff negotiating tactic, or both? And what could it mean for Global and Challenger buyers, fractional operators, delivery customers, and the wider business-aviation supply chain?

This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie and Preston break down:

Vista Global is reportedly eyeing a European IPO that could raise over $1 billion at a valuation north of $10 billion, and Jessie and Preston break down what that means against a $600 million RRJ Capital investment, looming 2027 debt, and how Vista's 2025 flight hours stack up against NetJets and Flexjet. From there, Apollo's new stake in Atlantic Aviation values the FBO chain at nearly $10 billion, just five years after KKR bought it from Macquarie for $4.475 billion, and the hosts connect that to a Senate letter pressing the FAA on private equity's growing role in aviation maintenance and consolidation. Then it's OneFlight International's...

Every general aviation airport in America is owned by a city or a county, and almost none of them can afford to build you a hangar. That is not a market failure. That is the system working exactly as it was designed.

This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie and Preston sit down with Tal Kenan, Founder and CEO of Sky Harbour, the publicly traded company building hangar campuses at airports where almost nobody can get land.

Tal grew up in military aviation, spent a decade running an investment firm between Tel Aviv and New...

flyExclusive reported a $111 million Q2, but behind the headline are improving margins, positive adjusted EBITDA, a complicated capital structure, and a $5 million loan carrying a stated 26.5% rate.

This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie Naor and Preston Holland break down flyExclusive’s Q2 2026 results: revenue growth, gross-margin improvement, fractional-program revenue, MRO, Jet Club activity, debt, and the related-party disclosures investors should read carefully. This is industry commentary only: not investment or financial advice.

Also in this episode:

Is Wheels Up finally building momentum—or simply burning more runway? We break down their latest financial release (not financial advice!).

This week, we battle it out over the Wheels Up Q2 results. The fleet transition is done early, the premium operation is more reliable, and management has put a 70-plus-hour utility target on the board. But cash burn, debt, deferred revenue and Delta support remain the real pressure points.

We also break down Solairus and Clay Lacy's deal, NetJets’ jet-card pause, Chris Rocheleau’s return to NBAA, Real Jet's Crytpo.com ne...

An anonymous, but infamous, aircraft owner known as XPlusLuxe joins The VIP Seat Podcast for one of our most fascinating conversations yet.

Known online for his legendary aircraft collection and viral aviation content, “Mr. T” shares what he’s learned after building a fleet of private jets—and why he believes most owners, operators, and even manufacturers misunderstand the economics of business aviation.

In this exclusive interview we discuss:

✈️ How a hedge fund manager became obsessed with private aviation
📊 Why data—not emotion—should drive aircraft purc...

Saudi Arabia’s The Helicopter Company, backed by the PIF, signs a Farnborough LOI with Bombardier for a firm order of 12 Challenger and Global jets plus options that could take the deal to around $2.8–3B and up to 60 aircraft. We break down FlyExclusive’s latest Jet Club press release, with record flight hours, an average $190K deposit per new member, and a 32% year‑over‑year jump in May deposits—and ask whether those prepaid hours will translate into profitable margins when earnings drop. Jessie and Preston unpack new NTSB documents on the Hudson River sightseeing helicopter crash, where Smithsonian feather lab...

This week, Preston joins live from EAA AirVenture Oshkosh with news on Emily Deaton's move to NBAA and show updates. Then: a 14-year-old bush pilot case out of Alaska heads to the U.S. Supreme Court over a six-pack of beer and a seized Cessna, a viral air traffic control exchange reignites the cockpit-professionalism debate, and two market reports land the same week — one on the private aircraft MRO boom, one on the ultra-wealthy buyers reshaping the business jet market. Plus: Textron's new Pipistrel Voyager trainer arrives right as the FAA's MOSAIC rule takes effect, Gianni Infantino's Gulfstream G650 ra...

This week’s episode of The VIP Seat hits all the major pressure points in business aviation: connectivity, new aircraft, regulation, legal risk, and AI‑driven fraud. Jessie and Preston start with Starlink’s latest aviation pricing changes, breaking down “Elonomics” at altitude—regional Aviation Unlimited rising to $12,500 per month with a 500 Mbps cap, the 25 GB plan doubling from $2,000 to $4,000, and a worldwide 1 Gbps unlimited tier now at $20,000 per month. They walk through what this means for new Gulfstreams, charter fleets, and other private jets that already require $300,000–$500,000 of Starlink hardware, and why some operators’ annual Wi‑Fi bills could approach 10...

This week on The VIP Seat, we’re covering one of the strangest weeks in aviation news yet.

The FAA moves one step closer to allowing civilian supersonic flight over the United States, and what that could mean for Boom Supersonic and the future of business aviation.

Plus: