Last week NetJets curtailed sales of its jet card and lease products for the second time in five years. The unit of Berkshire Hathaway cited "record-high retention rates, alongside increased (fractional) owner and market demand."

Doug Gollan

Despite a fleet of 868 private jets as of July, for the second time in five years, NetJets is limiting sales of its jet cards and leases. Back in August 2021, as the Covid pandemic led to a surge in demand for private jet flights, NetJets completely suspended its jet card program before bringing it back in late 2022.

Beyond its affiliation with Berkshire Hathaway and top-tier reputation, its jet cards are popular because they offer specific aircraft types, and customers are flown mainly on the company’s fractional fleet, providing a consistent experience. The cards also have lower international flight fees and shorter daily minimum charges than most other cards, often making them less expensive for those flight profiles. The primary and extended service areas, the places your contracted rates apply, are among the widest in the industry. That includes allowing flyers to use their hours for flights in Europe.

Its cards also permit bringing most pets. They have complimentary WiFi. They include full catering, something that isn’t cheap on private jets. Deicing charges, which can run into the thousands of dollars, and various other programs pass-along, are included in your contracted rate. The cards have relatively flexible cancellation terms and the ability to downgrade to a smaller aircraft on a confirmed basis. Until recently, its jet cards didn't have a fuel surcharge, and when NetJets changed the program, it didn't impose those changes retroactively on existing customers, a practice not uncommon in the segment that often irks flyers.

Jet cards are typically sold in increments of flight hours or dollars, and most jet cards offer buyers who pay for flights upfront a contracted hourly rate, which they are only charged for the time they spend flying, so they don’t have to worry about the cost of repositioning the aircraft. The vast majority of jet cards also provide guaranteed availability, meaning that, so long as the user books their flight a certain number of hours or days in advance, the jet card seller guarantees an aircraft in the category or type they signed up for, or better.

While Sentient Jet, now part of Flexjet LLC, is credited with inventing the jet card in 1999, Marquis Jet Partners, which launched in 2001 using the NetJets fleet before NetJets bought it in 2010, is widely credited with popularizing the product. Currently, there are more than 80 companies in North America, jet operators, brokers, and hybrids, that sell some variation of a jet card.

The news from NetJets, the world’s largest private jet operator, which was announced internally Friday, was first reported by Private Jet Card Comparisons.

NetJets told the buyer’s guide, “We continue to see record-high retention rates, alongside increased (fractional) owner and market demand. Our aim every day is to provide exceptional travel experiences with the level of safety and service that only NetJets can deliver. To focus on our core business of shared ownership and ensure that we do not compromise service delivery to existing (fractional) owners, we continue to take a disciplined approach to our sales. Our focus has never been merely pursuing growth, but rather to do so in a way in which we never compromise our service standards.”

As recently as January 2025, NetJets expanded the program, albeit with as many as 90 blackout dates for its lead price product.

Friday’s move wasn’t a surprise to some in the industry. Aviation Portfolio CEO Craig Ross, whose company advises fractional and full private jet owners, says, “NetJets capping card and lease sales aren’t a shock to anyone paying attention. It's pure math.” Ross, who was chief operating officer of Marquis Jet before launching Aviation Portfolio in 2011, adds, "Demand isn't just growing. It's compounding every single month with zero sign of slowing down. The industry is facing a shortage of top-tier flight crews, high-quality maintenance technicians, hangar space, ramp parking, air traffic controllers, and more. Capital in this space is infinite right now, but physical infrastructure has hard limits."

Through the first half of 2026, data from WingX shows private flight segments were up 4% year-over-year, headed for a new record, and were 35% above pre-Covid 2019 levels.

NetJets expects to take delivery of around 100 new jets this year, although it is also retiring older aircraft. By some estimates, NetJets was selling over $1 billion in jet cards annually. The company had previously said that jet cards and its entry-level 25-hour leases account for about 15% of its total flying, although that figure was thought to be in the 20% range before Covid.

For competitors in the jet card space, NetJets' move was welcome news.

Michael Farley, the CEO of Naples, Florida-based Outlier Jets, a charter broker, says, "NetJets wants to be in the long-term fractional business, and I don’t fault that. But if you hold a card, this is the second time in five years you’ve learned where you sit on the priority menu," adding, "Our jet card members average seven-and-a-half years with us, and we’ve never told a member the program was closed at renewal."

Fly Alliance CEO Christopher Tasca, whose company is the 14th-biggest jet operator in the U.S. based on charter and fractional flight hours, says, "As some of the larger providers adjust their card offerings and availability, we see a real opportunity" adding, “We have continued investing in our fleet, infrastructure and product offerings, and we have the capacity and operational foundation to responsibly welcome new clients without compromising the experience of our existing members.”

Anthony Tivnan, president of Magellan Jets, a Boston-area-based broker that expects to hit the $200 million mark in sales this year, notes, "When one door in this market closes, buyers don’t stop flying; they find a different one." Its jet card revenue during the first half of 2026 was up 14%, renewals increased 18%, and new jet card clients spiked 55% as total revenue grew 25%.

George Mattson, the CEO of Delta Air Lines-backed Wheels Up, which ranks fourth by charter and fractional hours, observes, “The private aviation market continues to evolve toward greater flexibility.” He says, "Increasingly, customers want premium access without the significant upfront investment, asset value risk, high fixed costs, long-term commitments, and complexity associated with whole or fractional ownership of a single aircraft type," adding, "We provide access to one of the industry's largest and most diverse owned and operated private aviation fleets, complemented by industry leading global charter capability and enhanced though our one-of-kind strategic partnership with Delta Air Lines offering premium commercial and hybrid private-commercial connected travel."

Alan Walsh, the president of Sentient Jet, which sold over $500 million in jet cards in 2025, says, "The market remains very robust for the jet cards, and we are continuing to see both flying and new card owner growth within our Sentient community."

While Sentient acts as a broker using third-party operators, it sells jet cards by category: light jets, midsize, super-midsize, and large cabin, FXAir, a charter broker that is also part of the group, recently began telling prospects it has a wait list for its Aviator+ membership. That program guarantees access at contracted rates to the popular Phenom 300 light jet and the super-midsize Challenger 300 series. Its President Gregg Slow says in its case, “Demand (for those aircraft types) continues to outpace supply, so to protect the experience of existing customers and fulfill commitments, sometimes you have to put a pause on taking in new customers.”

The group’s Flexjet brand focuses on fractional ownership, and ranks second to NetJets with a fleet of around 350 jets. However, it is a minor player in the jet card market, using them mainly for customers who aren't quite ready to make the five-year commitment of fractional ownership.

flyExclusive Chairman and CEO Jim Segrave, whose Raleigh, North Carolina-based operator, ranks fifth in the U.S. based on charter and fractional flight hours, believes, "NetJets is making a rational call — you can sell hours faster than you can put crews, mechanics, and airframes behind them, and they seem to have decided to protect the (fractional) owners they have." Until 2020, flyExclusive concentrated on the wholesale market. He adds, "We are in a different position. Our card and fractional sales are open…because we build to a lower customer-per-aircraft ratio than anyone else at the top of this industry — we have about 13 customers per plane — and because we built the supply side first, we have the capacity to continue to deliver."

Jet Linx Aviation, among the 10 largest operators, uses a hybrid approach, with its own fleet of jets and also third-party charter operators. It has seen jet card sales soar 65% compared to last year, according to Executive Chairman Jamie Walker. "We continue to have the capacity to sign up new members in August," Walker says. However, he warns the Omaha, Nebraska-based flight provider could start limiting new members if sales continue at the current clip.

Edgar Alacan, co-founder of Jets.com, which includes both a brokerage and charter operator, says, "We’re seeing strong growth despite headwinds like rising fuel prices and macroeconomic uncertainty." Alacan says the company had an increase in new customers year-to-date and a 90% renewal rate of existing clients. "Demand isn’t just holding, it’s expanding," Alacan says. He credits increased demand to "growth in crypto and AI, plus a wave of major IPOs and liquidity events." It recently launched a new customer app and expanded its client experience team.

A report earlier this year from investment bank Jefferies noted that IPO proceeds through June were almost three times the 2025 full-year level. According to the report, IPO activity and new private jet deliveries are 70% correlated over the past decade, except for the 2020 and 2021 Covid years. Analysts Sheila Kahyaoglu and Ceara Perry also credit UHNW growth. Citing Knight Frank figures, the duo wrote, "The global billionaire and UHNW population has grown at a 5% compound annual growth rate since 2019, culminating in a staggering total of 713,626 UHNW individuals and 3,110 billionaires," adding, “Over the period, the global UHNW and billionaire population correlated 83% to business jet departures.”

Baker Aviation is the 10th largest operator in the U.S., again based on charter and fractional hours, but doesn’t sell directly to consumers. Instead, its customers are other operators and brokers, including many of the large jet card sellers who promise guaranteed availability to their customers. After seeing 81% growth in flight hours in 2024, Baker Aviation recorded a 110% increase in flight hours last year per ARGUS TRAQPak. CEO Tim Livingston says this July was "surprisingly strong" compared to 2025 and 2024, which were "very weak." So far this year, it has operated charter flights for 588 different brokers and operators.

TLC Jet President Justin Firestone, a Marquis Jet alumnus, was nonplussed by the announcement. TLC Jet launched a partnership with American Airlines earlier this year, allowing its charter customers to earn loyalty points and miles in the AAdvantage program. He says, "The days of monogamous relationships ended a long time ago. We already support NetJets clients who use us for turboprops, large-group charters, corporate shuttles or when their upgrade requests can’t be confirmed. The upside is share of wallet." Firestone says he is not concerned about supply, claiming, "There is still solid availability of newer aircraft or specific aircraft types." He also expects NetJets to be back in the jet card and lease game. "This is a cycle. They'll make the adjustments they need to, and then they will open the jet cards and leases again," Firestone says.

Real Jet Chairman Kenny Dichter, who co-founded Marquis Jet, says, "When we launched with the backing of (NetJets founder and then CEO) Richard Santulli and (then Berkshire Hathaway CEO) Warren Buffett we didn't know how important the advent of the fractional jet card and jet cards in general would be as an entry point to the private aviation industry bringing tens of thousands of new customers and tens of billions of new incremental dollars to the market."

Flexjet LLC Chairman Kenn Ricci, speaking about jet cards during Sentient's 25th anniversary back in 2024, said the "creation of the jet card ranks as one of the most important and revolutionary product developments" in the industry.

For his part, Dichter, who also started Wheels Up, notes, "Private aviation today is at record levels, so (NetJets curtailing jet card sales is) a great opportunity for companies like Real Jet that offer our customers 365-day access to the world's finest aircraft that aren't constrained by the limits of a closed fleet where you have to prioritize fractional owners."

The decision by the market leader to limit jet card sales and leases comes as a new fractional competitor, BOND, plans to begin flying in early 2027. The start-up, backed by KKR and led by industry veteran Bill Papariella, has $5 billion of firm orders and options with Bombardier for its super-midsize and ultra-long-haul private jets. BOND is limiting the number of shares it sells per aircraft to 10 instead of the industry standard 16, and it won’t sell any jet cards. Papariella recently told CNBC that customers have an "appetite for a more premium ownership experience at the top of the market." Papariella worked at Marquis Jet and then NetJets before leaving in 2012 to launch Jet Edge, a charter operator he sold to Vista Global in 2022 for a reported $650 million.

For NetJets, the last time it cut sales of jet cards and leases, which included halting renewals, it worked out well. It gained more fractional customers as flyers consolidated their flying with NetJets, including switching from airline flights. Nearly 50% of private flyers say poor service and delays by the airlines are an impetus to fly privately. There was also a long wait list when NetJets reopened the lease and jet card programs, with former customers returning.