Flexjet Adds G650 to Fractional Fleet

The October 4 delivery of Flexjet’s largest airplane, a Gulfstream G650, marks the fractional-share operator’s move into a new realm of service for customers who want to fly long-range trips. Flexjet celebrated the arrival of the new jet on October 6 during a ceremony at its Cuyahoga County Airport headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. The company’s second G650 joined the fleet a week later.

“We’ve been envisioning this for many years,” said Flexjet CEO Michael Silvestro. The two G650s are part of a $2.5 billion, 50-airplane order that Flexjet made with Gulfstream three years ago. Flexjet also became the exclusive fractional-share provider for the G650, G650ER and G500.

So far Flexjet has taken delivery of seven G450s, and early next year expects to take delivery of its first G500, for which it is the North American launch customer. Four G500s will join Flexjet next year. Customers have been asking for longer-range trips, Silvestro explained, adding that Flexjet will use the new jets in the Global Access program for international travel and to supplement existing lift.

The G650s are part of Flexjet’s Red Label fleet, which assigns dedicated flight crew to each jet. As there won’t be enough G650s in the fleet in the short term, Flexjet plans to offer quarter shares to buyers who want to fly long trips. “We can’t oversubscribe a fleet that isn’t there yet,” Silvestro said. The order covers six G650s, and the remaining four will be delivered in 2019.

The Flexjet G650s are equipped with a customized four-zone interior with two staterooms. The aft stateroom can double as a crew rest area if a trip is long enough to require an augmented crew. There is also a crew rest area near the forward galley. Flexjet is adding its own interior modification to the G650s, a cabinet with a 42-inch TV and a stowable ottoman opposite a divan in zone three that Flexjet certified itself.

Flexjet now operates 160 airplanes, and deliveries scheduled for the next few months will add another Phenom 300, five Legacy 450s and six Challengers 350s. The Red Label fleet offers the Legacy 450 and larger jets.

The Gulfstream order reflects a shift in Flexjet operations away from lighter aircraft. “We made a decision to put our capital focus on larger aircraft,” said Flexjet chairman Kenn Ricci. “Uber-ization seems to be coming to the light end of the market. It doesn’t seem that you’re going to uberize large aircraft because uberization by definition seems to be targeted toward cost. NetJets gave us an opening. We thought three years ago, 'How could we compete against NetJets? They’re bigger and they have more airplanes. That’s our opportunity. We can be a boutique, be specialized and have this Red Label program. When Gulfstream gave us this exclusivity, that was pretty big for us, to be able to represent such an iconic brand.”

At the ceremony, Ricci thanked Flexjet employees for helping build the company. “The G650 is evidence of what we can accomplish,” he said, “99,000 pounds of evidence, but I think it also says something about where we’re going, faster, farther and higher.”

Ricci also praised the employees for their contributions during recent natural disasters. “I’m proud about this company,” he said. “When I think of what this company did to retrieve people from Florida as the hurricanes were approaching, and then to get them back down there…then I saw this company come together for Puerto Rico. I saw us bring supplies there and saw people donate money to help the people of Puerto Rico.”

Summarizing his career, Ricci recalled his earlier exploits as a flight instructor, freight pilot and airline pilot, then a furlough that returned him to teaching. “Aviation has always been in my heart through good times and bad. And sometime during that my dad said to me, ‘You know, you ought to get a law degree in case this aviation thing doesn’t work out.’ Well, my dad’s not with me today either, but I think he’d think if he was here that this aviation thing worked out OK."