Fractional ownership operator Flight Options is planning a major expansion under its new owner Miami-based HIG Capital, including a "significant" order for Embraer business jets that could total around 100 aircraft over the next decade.
Private equity firm HIG acquired the Cleveland, Ohio-based operator - the world's second largest fractional company - from Raytheon in October and expects the deal to be completed by the end of the year.
Flight Options made a profit for the first time last quarter, a major turning point the company says. Flight Options will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2008.
"Over this period we have moved from being a company that lost 18¢ in every dollar to turning an operating profit and one that offered 13 fleet types with 23 different cockpit to four fleet types and four cockpits - Hawker 400XP, 850XP/900XP, Cessna Citation X and [Embraer] Legacy 600," says Flight Options chief executive Michael Scheeringa.
"Our new owners share with us the same view about how we are going to grow," he says. "We now have the best economic platform from which to develop and launch new products and grow Flight Options well in to the next decade."
Flight Options plans to launch an ad hoc charter programme on 12 November. Although it is tight-lipped on details until the unveiling, Scheeringa says the programme will offer a "one-stop shop" for customers who are mainly fractional and block charter card owners.
Flight Options operates a fleet of 130 aircraft for its 1,400 shareowners and recently started a business aircraft management programme from which it hopes to feed the charter demand. "We have three aircraft already in the programme and we plan to double this number by the end of the year," Scheeringa says.
Source: Flight International
