Creating Aviation Options For Wealthy Clients

Tom Burroughes

21 April 2025

One of the benefits that wealth hopefully provides is a variety of options. And that means being able to get from A to B as smoothly and quickly as possible. If having high net worth status cannot provide that, there’s a problem.

A way to think of today’s private and business jet sector is that it solves a problem that executives, entrepreneurs and high-profile professionals have and are willing to spend on to fix: lack of time. While not a popular point to make in politics, perhaps, it is that if movers and shakers in business cannot easily move around, an economy can’t grow as much as it should.

All of this is to say that private aviation is important. Jim Segrave, founder and CEO of flyExclusive, a publicly traded private jet provider, runs a business that is a cog in an important wheel. flyExclusive has a fleet of around 100 jets and offers fractional ownership and jet club membership. Segrave recently spoke to Family Wealth Report.

The firm does most of its aircraft maintenance at its HQ in Kinston, North Carolina. Segrave, who is also a pilot, sold his previous company to Delta before founding flyExclusive. The business went public in December 2023.

For busy executives and businessmen with their families, a big return on their spending in private aviation is saving hours of time, Segrave said.

“They want to be in control of their schedule and leave when they want to leave,” he said. For example, there are the benefits of being collected by car as soon as a plane lands and taken safely to the next destination. “The level of efficiency is pretty incredible.”

The health of this sector can be a barometer for wealth managers and advisors to track. It sheds light on how affluent people are feeling; what their appetite for risk and experience is, and how much they’re willing to spend on comfort and avoiding problems.

According to a 2024 report by Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, the sector has been on an “amazing six-year run-up”; business aviation activity reached a recent high level and is settling in for a “prolonged period of steady growth.” The annual report said aircraft manufacturers expect to deliver 830 new business jets valued at $27 billion in 2025, capping a stretch that began in 2019 during which aircraft deliveries rose by 16 per cent and spending on new aircraft climbed 32 per cent. The report’s authors predict steady growth for the next decade, with business jet deliveries and expenditures up at compounded rates of at least 2 per cent and 3 per cent from 2024 to 2034. North America remains dominant. North American operators will take delivery of two-thirds of business jets produced in the next five years, slightly more than the outlook projected in last year’s report, it said.

Tiers
flyExclusive’s club membership comes in range of price tiers, from $75,000 all the way up to a Platinum Jet Club, with no monthly fees and daily minimums, Segrave said.

The Club arrangement started about four years ago. “It is now a mature program with about 1,000 members and it is a very simple structure. We can charge a daily or hourly rate,” he continued.

Examples of flyExclusive’s fractional ownership model include a share of a new Citation CJ3+ jet, a Challenger 350. Jets fall into the light, middle and “super-Mid” levels. For example, the CJ3+ arrangement involves no monthly management fee.

The fractional option is a way for those with, say, 50 to 100 hours of flights a year to have an arrangement without having a buy a new plane of their own, or worry about recruiting pilots and arranging hangar space.

Looking ahead, Segrave said there is big growth potential in fractional ownership. Asked why, he replied: “Good economics, stickier contracts, better overall fleet efficiency. Fractional is attractive for certain customers of private aviation that fly more frequently – the tax shield from the depreciation of the asset is a big factor in why people decide to do it.”

Segrave said another trend is a desire for access to private jet resources when other, more commercial schedules aren’t easy to work with.

This industry has challenges such as availability of parts and maintenance, Segrave said. “Our biggest issue is availability and the ability to fix a plane fast enough so as to use it.”