Story ID: 3120313alerts
BlackJet Suspends Per-seat Bookings
By: James Wynbrandt
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Word Count: 201
Charter broker BlackJet has suspended per-seat bookings while it seeks capital to launch would-be signature charter service, CEO Dean Rotchin told AIN. BlackJet, the rebranded and remodeled Greenjet per-seat charter provider that sold seats on business jet flights between Florida and the U.S. Northeast, intends to replicate its predecessor’s membership-based service on a transcontinental scale, with a seat for a coast-to-coast flight costing about $3,500.

Its iOS app promises simplified charter bookings, which the West Palm Beach, Fla. company hopes will transform it into an aviation version of California’s popular Uber Technologies town car service. Rotchin said chairman Shervin Pishevar, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who spearheaded Greenjet’s relaunch under the BlackJet moniker in September last year, has left the company, but “the rest of the board members are still on board.”

Rotchin declined to specify fundraising goals or a timetable. BlackJet is continuing to take membership applications but “there’s a giant line [of prospective members] in queue that have not been approved, because we don’t have the capital to provide seats for them,” Rotchin said. “We need capital.” He said BlackJet had provided about 2,000 per-seat bookings before suspending this service.