Kenny Dichter Gets ‘Real’ in His New Bizav Venture

Business aviation entrepreneur Kenny Dichter returned to NBAA-BACE to highlight his next chapter as founder of Real Jet, reentering the air charter brokering realm but this time with a boutique approach that focuses on top-tier service. Speaking to reporters Monday at BACE, Dichter likened the new venture to models of the Four Seasons or Burgess Yachts—long-standing companies with strong reputations for high-end, white-glove-type service, but that are not asset-based.

Announced earlier this year, the corporate entity is headquartered in New York with the operational base in Atlanta. Launching operations in August, Real Jet already has about 30 people on staff and has arranged about the first 100 flights, most of which have sought out Real Jet service.

Real Jet builds on relationships that Dichter and his colleagues have established over the years—in fact, he founded the company with several of his colleagues from Wheels Up and Marquis Jet. The company is led by president Robert Withers, who has long worked with Dichter both as a co-founder of Wheels Up and at Marquis Jet—“a 40-year friend and a 20-plus-year partner.”

“We’re really fortunate to have 12 or 15 people that joined us from our past lives,” Dichter said. Withers, he added, has “tremendous good faith and credit with the operating community.”

Real Jet is offering a straight brokerage without jet cards, membership, or other fee-based requirements for service. However, it is building a Real SLX platform that creates an “ecosystem,” with hospitality, unique experiences, and other curated benefits, in addition to private aircraft options.

Real Jet differs from the past two companies Dichter founded: Wheels Up, a multifaceted operator and broker that aimed to democratize the business with broad growth, and Marquis Jet, which pioneered fractional jet cards. Wheels Up ultimately went public with Delta Air Lines becoming the largest shareowner, and fractional ownership provider NetJets acquired Marquis Jet.

But unlike Wheels Up, which became a billion-plus operator, Dichter and his partner’s vision for Real Jet is to cultivate it into a $500 million to $750 million company over the next three to five years with a customer base of 5,000 to 10,000 people.

Likewise, the company plans to limit its charter placements to about the top 200 operators—ones that Real Jet executives know and have vetted, particularly on the safety front. But Dichter noted that many of the operators have long worked with the Real Jet team in their past roles. The Real Jet team is further meeting with operators at NBAA-BACE this week.

As far as service, Dichter said he’s taken lessons learned from the likes of fractional ownership pioneer Richard Santulli, the former NetJets chief who sold his service and then ultimately the entire company to Warren Buffett.

At Wheels Up, Dichter departed the company in 2023 as it was amid a reorganization and shoring up its debt. He noted the ongoing integration with Delta and said, “Both Robert and I are very proud of where Wheels Up is, but with Real Jet, there’s an amazing niche—a boutique play in the market.”

Pointing to Burgess, Dichter noted that it has a 360-degree view of the customer. With Wheels Up and Marquis Jet, “I think about the 2 million takeoffs and 2 million landings. I think about the over $10 billion of sales we created [over 20-plus years] and, in a lot of cases, new people to the industry, and I think about our retention rate of 90%. We have a high bar, but our new structure is where we are trying to have an incredible customer experience.”

He explained that this means customers remain at the center with full transparency and extensive communications.