Jet Linx Aviation Executive Chairman is pitching a chance to be an owner in one of the nation's 10 largest charter operators, including the perks of being the private jet guy in your locale.

Jet Linx Aviation

Want to be the center of attention in your local community? Looking to raise the profile of your philanthropic, business, and social interests outside your current circle? Owning an airline has always been a sure-fire way to be the center of attention. In the past, tycoons like Howard Hughes (TWA, Hughes Airwest), Kirk Kerkorian (Western Airlines, MGM Grand Air), and Marvin Davis (failed bids for Northwest Airlines and United Airlines) knew owning an airline or a chunk of one represented a trophy conquest.

With lounges on airliners long ago replaced by extra rows of cramped seats and buy-on-board cold sandwiches taking the place of roasts carved from the trolley, owning a private airline can make you a local celebrity, say those who are already base partners for Jet Linx. Best of all, they say, you get the benefits without the headaches.

So what's the deal?

Jet Linx Aviation is the eighth-largest private jet airline in the U.S., based on charter and fractional flight hours. In the past, it had grown on a sort of franchise model, adding locations across the country. Back in 2020, it rolled up those local partnerships into shares of the parent company and suspended the program during COVID when demand was outstripping supply. Now it is relaunching the program.

The new Base Partner Program pairs Jet Linx with local, successful individuals in each of its local markets who are users of private aviation and familiar with the local marketplace. Some are aircraft owners while others are private fliers looking for something more than their fractional or jet card programs.

The Base Partners "share in the success of Jet Linx as an ambassador and shareholder in the company."

While it is a business investment, Executive Chairman Jamie Walker and several current base partners say it is much more.

Of the current base partners, Walker notes, "I'd say they have all been pleasantly surprised, like I continue to be, with the breadth of interesting and successful people you get to know by owning a private jet company. People right there in your own community, you would have otherwise never met, who all have fascinating stories and backgrounds. And when you're the local jet guy, everyone wants to meet you. It's pretty cool to be part of something everyone has an interest in learning more about."

From a strategic perspective, the new formula makes sense, Walker says.

Currently, there are over 20 locations on the East Coast, with bases in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Boca Raton, and Miami, and as far west as Denver, Scottsdale and Salt Lake City.

Top of the list for expansion are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and cities with a metropolitan area population of two million and at least 40 Part 135 charter aircraft within a 100-mile radius.

There is also the possibility of adding locations in current markets.

Part of the USP for Jet Linx is that at each base, it operates its own private terminal and lounge reserved for owners of private jets it manages and members of its guaranteed jet card program.

The lounges offer a respite from the busy, utilitarian FBOs.

Like the TV bar Cheers, it's a place where they know your name – and the names of your kids and pets.

There is a well-stocked bar where favorite libations are put on offer when you are flying, as well as premium snacks that are not typical for chain FBOs.

There is also valet parking, a nice perk in cities with severe winter weather, such as Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Omaha, and so on.

While you are away, Jet Linx will detail your car.

In places like New York, where its private terminal is at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, or Atlanta, where it has a Peachtree DeKalb location, or Chicago, where it is located at Chicago Executive Airport, there could be an opportunity to add other busy private jet airports in the region.

Forty-seven percent of private aviation users cite more convenient airports as a reason to fly privately, according to research by Private Jet Card Comparisons.

Like the Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons, which have multiple hotels in large markets, Walkers says the new structure enables Jet Linx to expand similarly. The previous set-up gave the base partner exclusivity over their base area. They also benefited only from their local business.

Walker says the new structure means base partners benefit when the company grows overall, locally, or anywhere. The more flyers and owners they bring into the network, in addition to boosting the business, they can reduce their private flight costs.

For their part, the existing base partners are excited about the new program.

The current partners say it's not just about the investment and being an owner in a national private jet company, but also about "being the jet guy" in your community.

Just ask Brent Claymon, an Indianapolis-based entrepreneur who has owned businesses in real estate and storage, as well as car dealerships, who says it's all about the jet.

Claymon has been a base partner there since 2013. He says at the golf club that, while real estate and cars are popular topics, everyone wants to talk about airplanes, particularly private ones.

That small talk can lead to business, and Claymon says being the jet guy "attracts people" to his real estate business.

Like the others, he says the new program isn’t just about finding investors – something Walker says starts in the seven-figure range. The goal, Claymon says, is "how do we find the right people that are going to help grow the business and find the people that have really committed."

Partners need to reside within the community, actively participate in their community, are deeply involved in their social networks, and demonstrate a strong commitment to civic and philanthropic activities, Walker says.

Brent Carreker, with his father Denny, has held court in Dallas since 2009 and helped expand Jet Linx locations across the state, where it has bases in Austin, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.

He appreciates the new structure. Under the previous one, each base had its own P+L. Carreker describes the current base partners as an exclusive club of successful executives. Publicly traded Carreker Corporation was sold to another publicly traded company in 2007 for $206 million.

Carreker says, "We've got guys that own hotels. We've got guys who are in the software business. We've got guys who were in the oil business. And the common thread, as you said, is that everybody loves airplanes. They're fun. We have people who come to the base to see the airplanes."

The heavy metal creates strong bonds, Carreker says, adding, "For me personally, for doing this as long as I have, if you asked, 'What is the coolest thing that you have developed or learned, you know, over the last 17 years?' I would 100% say it's the relationships with very successful people that I'll have for the rest of my years."

Of other base partners, the aircraft owners who contract Jet Linx to manage their private jets, and the flyers who use its jet card program, Carreker says, "I just love talking to these people and hearing their success story and how they hit their home run. You get to know them, and you get to know their families, and they trust you, and you trust them."

John Snodgrass, a top franchise and hospitality executive, says new base partners won’t have the pain points of the past. While Jet Linx handled flight operations and logistics from its Omaha headquarters, Snodgrass recalls signing the lease and supervising the build-out of its facilities in Atlanta.

He says the Jet Linx lounges have a social bent. "I loved being there, and the families came in with their dogs, and they’d go to the bar, and they’d raid the bar and take booze on the plane, and they were talking about going to the Bahamas and what a fun time they were going to have, and it was all good," he says.

For all the fun and connections, investing in aviation is risky. If you bought $1,000 of Wheels Up stock when it went public via a SPAC IPO back in 2021, it would be worth around $6 today. Warren Buffett told shareholders it took him more than a decade to see NetJets turn a profit after Berkshire Hathaway bought the company in 1998. On the bright side, in 2023, he said it had turned around and could be valued the same as a major airline.

While Walker declined to provide more specifics on the nitty gritty of the investment, he says Jet Linx is profitable and partners’ ownership is structured to be liquid.

Walker adds, “We are local, trusted members of the Omaha community where we were founded, which gave us a unique advantage over our national competitors to win the local market when we started. We grew by partnering with local individuals nationwide who gave us this same advantage in the city they call home.”

For his part, Snodgrass says, “Jet Linx has stood the test of time in an industry where quite a few companies have come and gone, and I think it’s stood the test of time because of its local relationship with the customer.”