After pausing sales because of overwhelming demand for light jet fractional sales last summer, NetJets created a 25-hour lease program for individuals and businesses on a waiting list. With more aircraft and crews, the fractional provider opened the program a few months ago to those on the waiting list and is now expanding it more broadly.
NetJets' newest program guarantees access for 36 months to lease a NetJets aircraft—an Embraer Phenom 300E, Cessna Citation XLS, Citation Sovereign, or Bombardier Challenger 350—for 25 hours of flying time annually. Lease customers need only provide 24 hours' notice for the aircraft.
Terms of the program call for a minimum 36-month commitment and 320 days of guaranteed access, with 45 no-fly days and 45 peak period days in which NetJets can adjust departure times by three more or fewer hours. NetJets didn’t disclose specific costs for the program since they vary based on hours used. However, as an example, a 25-hour lease for a Phenom 300 would total about $250,000 per year.
The program is being made available after NetJets began a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year investment in more than 175 aircraft, 80 of which are scheduled to be delivered this year. NetJets also hired more than 630 additional pilots and workers in 2021 and expects to add more than 450 pilots this year.