It’s been a year of change for industry data provider JetNet. As the company celebrates its 35th anniversary, for the first time in that span it is under new ownership, with a private investment firm acquiring it from the family of its founder, the late Vincent Esposito Sr.
“Last year the Espositos really came to the conclusion that they had taken the company about as far as they could and that JetNet needed to be in the hands of someone with greater resources than they had to take it to the next level,” explained Paul Cardarelli, the Utica, New York-based company’s v-p of sales. “Approximately one year ago the transition was made, and JetNet was purchased by Silversmith Capital Partners out of Boston.”
Since then, backed by Silversmith’s $3.3 billion portfolio, the company has been in expansion mode, acquiring three separate industry data analysis firms. First came aviation valuation firm Asset Insight, creator of the eValues real-time valuation tool. “Asset Insight just offered such an innovative product, looking at the resale and the valuation market in a different light that really brought a lot of color to the JetNet platform,” said Jason Lorraine, JetNet’s assistant v-p of strategic solutions and product sales.
That was followed a few months later by the purchase of flight tracker ADS-B Exchange. Founded in 2016, the company operates a network of ADS-B, Mode S, and MLAT feeders and provides real-time and historical flight data. “There’s been cases where officials have used the ADS-B platform and data to locate missing aircraft, doing accident analysis, or trying to understand a particular market [such as] the medevac helicopter industry,” explained Lorraine.
In June JetNet acquired Hamburg, Germany-based business aviation data firm WingX Advance, which tracks the activity of aircraft and airports across the globe. “Extremely important to all users of our services is understanding the utilization of aircraft, and that just touches on our whole variety of customers,” noted Cardarelli.
The additions have served to JetNet's revenues by 60 percent over the past year. Each of the three companies has retained its own identity and is exhibiting at the JetNet booth (C11444). “We’ve looked at all three of these acquisitions as very much complementing the mission that JetNet already has,” Cardarelli told AIN. “We want to be the best, deepest, broadest purveyor of information on business aircraft, commercial aircraft, helicopters, and certain pistons as well throughout the world, so we are researching today a little bit north of 110,000 in-service airframes worldwide.”
Another result of the Silversmith purchase was JetNet's ability to bolster its staff, including new CEO Derek Swaim, new COO Josh Baird, and seven other senior executives. The company currently employs around 85 people, the majority of whom are members of its research department. They speak with owners and operators about the status of their aircraft on a regular basis, and some are stationed at the FAA aircraft registry in Oklahoma City, so as soon as a new aircraft is registered it is entered into the JetNet database.
“I think when we started JetNet, the business jet database was something like 6,000 to 7,000 airframes. Today it's pressing up on 24,000,” explained Cardarelli. “I’m talking in-service airframes. We have the out-of-service airframes on the database as well, but it's 24,000 or so that are viable in-service airframes today.”
As an offshoot of that contact with the end users, the company—in partnership with Rolland Vincent Associates—launched JetNet iQ in 2011, a quarterly survey that captures data from operators. For more than a dozen years, that information has been synthesized into reports for subscribers as well as used to fashion a 10-year business aircraft delivery forecast that has become one of the most respected in the industry and is updated quarterly. In addition to its latest forecast, at NBAA’s annual convention, the company will also present results from its just concluded 3Q survey, its 50th consecutive quarterly report.