Sentient Jet President: The Rise of Private Jet Aviation

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00:00We know that around the holidays, you see commercial air travel pick up in a big way.

00:05Does it then follow that you see a similar trend when it comes to the private jet landscape as well?

00:11It does. Katie, great to meet you. Thanks for having me on to vote yourself and Romaine.

00:15It absolutely does. You know, from Ascension's side, you mentioned, yes, we've been in operation

00:20for 25 years. We have 6,800 card owners. And yes, they like to travel. It's no different from

00:27the commercial world. You know, business, it is a peak season. December is that peak travel

00:33between the Christmas and the New Year time frame. This season will be no different.

00:38And talk to us a little bit about how your business works here. I know that you introduced,

00:43of course, a new industry segment with this idea of a jet card. Walk us through how that actually

00:49works. So, you know, it is something that we invented, as mentioned, back in 1999.

00:55And really, you know, the cost of private aviation can be expensive in your jet ownership or if

01:04you're in a fractional world. However, the jet card gives you the flexibility where it's

01:08asset light, where you can basically pre-purchase hours that then you can use at your discretion.

01:14We sell those in 25, 50 hour increments. But the hours don't expire and the rates are guaranteed

01:21and they're available anytime that you want. That's the beauty, you know, is the fact that

01:26you have them. They don't expire. So, you know, it gives people a lot of flexibility on a year-over-year

01:32basis.

01:32I am curious, Alan, just about kind of the behavior of your passengers. Are they booking

01:37last minute for trips or are they the kind of people that are these are the types of trips that

01:42they're taking that could be done months in advance? What does it look like?

01:45It's a bit of both, Romain, to be perfectly honest. Thanks for asking. We do see, you

01:50know, more and more, I think, coming out of COVID, we saw an explosion in travel. I mean,

01:56that is somewhat abated. But I think what it has done is given people a different mindset

02:00when it comes to travel now, where it's become more on the experiential side as a business,

02:06you know, and not just a business necessity as to what some of the things were before.

02:09But on the experiential side, people do pre-plan. And when you look at something like December

02:14now, yes, you know, people take the same trips to the same places to be with family every

02:19year and they will pre-book months out. But at the same time, we're always going to have

02:23the last minute travel, of course. But typically, you're going to see for a season of travel

02:27like this, it's many, many weeks out.

02:29What type of destinations are you seeing people go to? Anything that's kind of relatively new,

02:33maybe, that we've seen this year relative to past?

02:36Yeah, so the traditional routes are really northeast to southeast. You know, not shocking

02:42when you come from the cold northeast and you want to go to the warmer southeast during

02:45seasonal travel and also escape into the mountains, going to the Rockies, into Colorado for ski

02:50season. One of the trends that we are seeing, though, Romaine, is people flying bigger and

02:56longer. So, you know, what does that mean? It really means the experiential travel aspect

03:01of it, where people want to travel with friends and family and more. And that really comes into

03:07the end-to-end experience of a holiday and really, really spending time. That's probably the big

03:13trend that we're seeing.

03:14That's really interesting because my perception has always been that, you know, people fly privately,

03:20basically domestically within the country, that when it comes to those international trips,

03:25that's something that you might actually book a commercial flight for. But listening to you,

03:30Alan, it kind of sounds like that trend is shifting a bit here.

03:33It really is. Yeah. I mean, if you look at places like the islands and the Caribbean,

03:37more and more they're becoming more popular. And the reason for that, Katie, is access.

03:42You know, you mentioned both the commercial and some of the challenges with the volume that we will

03:45see over the holiday period. But, you know, when you are flying private, you do have the flexibility

03:51to fly into smaller locations, shorter runways, greater flexibility. And it's become very,

03:56very attractive and accessible to people. So, again, it's a pickup. You know, we'll certainly

04:00see that type of travel really, really exponentially grow over the next couple of weeks.

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