A blend of hometown service and national reach is how emerging ‘co-ownership’ operator Jet Out describes its offer. The Milwaukee-based company has opened its second base and is eyeing more
A private aviation company whose “boutique” co-ownership offer has proved popular in Wisconsin and the surrounding region has established a base in Florida and is looking at further opportunities to roll out its “local-national” model “west of the Mississippi”.
Milwaukee-based Jet Out – which has what it claims is the largest and newest fleet of Textron Aviation Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen2s in the USA – has been operating for the past several weeks from Sheltair’s fixed base operation at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport with two new Gen 2s that were delivered in September.
The Florida expansion marks the company’s first expansion outside the upper Midwest.
Gordon Cameron, vice-president of revenue, says it was a “natural move” because southeast Florida has the highest density of permanent residents in the state and is also second home to many Wisconsin “snowbirds” who spend the winter in Florida and are familiar with the Jet Out brand. The area also has “great infrastructure” and a ready supply of qualified pilots, he says.
The Part 135 operator, founded by chief executive Joe Crivello in 2018, is also constructing a 2,000sq m (22,000sq ft) hangar-terminal building at Waukesha County Airport near Milwaukee, due to open in the first half of next year. The facility will include meeting spaces, a kitchen, bar, game room, and lounge.
Waukesha is a 30min drive from Milwaukee’s Mitchell International where Jet Out opened its first FBO in early 2023, the first business aviation facility to be built at the airport for three decades. Branded Jet In, it comprises a passenger terminal, 3,700sq m hangar and 900sq m maintenance facility, along with dedicated ramp space.
Cameron says Jet Out’s model differs from large fractional brands in that its fleets are locally based, so co-owners regularly see and fly in the actual aircraft they co-own. This way, the company insists it can “support our clients in a much more personal and efficient way than any national competitor that relies on the floating fleet model”.
The company offers one-sixteenth shares of an aircraft in return for 20 days of flying. “Within that day you can fly as many hours as you like,” explains Cameron. As with other US fractional programmes, share purchasers who use their aircraft for business purposes can deduct depreciation from their tax bill, while benefiting from the operational cost savings of co-ownership.
After taking delivery of two CJ4 Gen2 aircraft from Textron Aviation in May last year, Jet Out ordered four more examples that October, with deliveries beginning this year. Once they are all in service, it will take Jet Out’s fleet of the Williams International FJ44-4A-powered light jets to seven. Cameron says commitments for “several more” CJ4 Gen 2s are likely to follow.
Jet Out, which has also operated entry-level Citation M2s, says it selected the 1,600nm (3,000km)-range type, which can carry eight passengers, as “the best option for delivering the comfort and performance demanded by the growing mission profile of our clients”.
Jet Out, which has a team of around 50 pilots and its own maintenance staff, is setting its sights on expansion into the west of the country. “There is a high propensity that we go westward,” says Cameron, who says markets such as New York City and the broader northeast, despite a large demand for business aviation, are already highly competitive for light-jet operators. However, he says, “we will consider going anywhere there is unfulfilled demand”.
He says that Jet Out would like to open “three to four” bases a year for the next five years, with aircraft and pilots based in the area and mirroring its success in Wisconsin of “building a local retail charter brand” and selling empty leg flights through brokers.
As part of that model, it will consider opening branded FBOs. “We are trialing the customer lounge model at Waukesha and if it is successful we will roll it out at new bases,” says Cameron.
Cameron says Crivello founded Jet Out because he had benefited from private aviation while building a commercial property business in the mid-2000s. “For him, it was a multiplier. However, he was chartering aircraft and buying jet cards, but nothing really worked as well as he thought it could, so he decided to do it himself by buying a Part 135 company,” he says.
He says the company’s philosophy is to combine a personal, local charter service with the efficiencies of a larger operation. “Everyone loves the idea of a boutique provider in their backyard, but they also want the benefit of scale,” he says. “We are about putting a boutique service in the right places around the country.”
