Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

June 24th, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 25 Companion

Good morning and welcome back to the VIP Seat. This week we are covering Global Jet Capital's $659 million bond, the new Air Force One landing at Andrews, NetJets' first fatal crash, a pilot finally home after months held in Guinea, and Magellan Jets gearing up for an acquisition spree. We also sit down with John Owen of Airshare for a special Mile High Madness. Sit back, buckle up, and let's take off.

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The Scoop: Global Jet Capital closed its ninth asset-backed securities offering, BJETS 2026-1, raising roughly $659 million backed by business aircraft loans and leases, according to Corporate Jet Investor. The deal came in three tranches: a $561.39 million Class A, a $56.95 million Class B, and a $40.68 million Class C. S&P Global Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency assigned ratings of A/A, BBB+/BBB and BB/BB across the three tranches. The transaction drew 41 investors, 12 of them new to the BJETS program. The pool covers 28 leases and loans spanning 20 industries and 16 different aircraft models, primarily mid- to large-cabin business jets. The offering brings Global Jet Capital's total assets securitized to approximately $6.7 billion.

Our Take: This is the other side of the M&A Gong, the debt side. When a Fortune 500 finances a large-cabin jet through an operating lease, the title sits with a lessor like Global Jet Capital, not on the company's balance sheet, which keeps a single airplane from becoming an earnings-call headache. Global Jet Capital then packages those high-quality leases and loans, all backed by strong corporate credits, and sells the cash flows to investors.

The catch is that the residual value risk shifts to Global Jet Capital, which is exactly why these pools lean on mid- and large-cabin metal with durable values. When capital shows up in force at the high end of the credit spectrum, the benefit tends to trickle down to the rest.

Read More: Corporate Jet Investor

The Scoop: The newest Air Force One, the Boeing-built VC-25B Bridge, was delivered to Joint Base Andrews on Friday, June 19, the Air Force announced, arriving with a fresh red, white and blue paint job and final government modifications. As the name suggests, the aircraft is meant to bridge the gap between the current VC-25A fleet, in service since the early 1990s under President George H.W. Bush, and the permanent replacement fleet still to come. Before it can carry the president, the jet must complete commissioning flights that the Air Force described as a final exam testing safety and official protocols. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said the service delivered the aircraft on an accelerated timeline. The permanent VC-25B fleet was originally scheduled for 2024, and reporting from Breaking Defense cited by Fox 5 suggests the first of two jets may not arrive until mid-2028.

Our Take: We think the new red, white and blue paint is a serious upgrade over the old baby-blue scheme.

We will leave the politics surrounding this bird to the political podcasts. The aviation point is simpler: there are only a handful of 747-8s anywhere in a VVIP configuration that could even be candidates for this mission, so getting one flying on an accelerated timeline is no small feat. Boeing being way behind schedule is the issue here, and now the spotlight turns back to them to see when they can deliver the permanent replacement.

Read More: Fox 5 DC

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The Scoop: A NetJets-operated Cessna Citation Latitude crashed on June 16 while attempting an emergency landing in Laredo, Texas, in what CNBC reported is the first fatal crash in NetJets' history and the first for any fractional private jet ownership provider. The aircraft was flying from San José del Cabo, Mexico, to Austin when its crew reported it was low on fuel and requested an emergency landing at Laredo's airport. The two pilots and three teenaged passengers on board survived. One person was killed: Joshua Baer, founder of Austin-based startup accelerator Capital Factory, according to CNBC and other outlets. Laredo's mayor told reporters it was nothing short of a miracle that the crash did not become a mass-fatality event. The cause remains under investigation.

Our Take: This one is hard, and we want to be careful. We do not speculate on causes before the investigators do their work. What we will say is that five people walking away from an aircraft that broke apart is a credit to the crew, and our thoughts are with the family of the person who was lost.

NetJets has built its reputation on a safety record that leaders like Warren Buffett have pointed to for years, and part of why that record holds is a culture of safety. An isolated event, whatever the eventual findings, is a very different thing from a pattern, and that at the scale NetJets operates, the math says incidents will touch even the best operators. Given how high-profile this is, we expect the NTSB preliminary report to move quickly, and we expect NetJets to want the facts in the open.

Read More: CNBC

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The Scoop: Chicago corporate jet pilot Brad Schlenker is home after what he said was more than five months held captive in the West African nation of Guinea, NBC Chicago reported. Schlenker said he and his co-pilot were flying a family from Suriname to Dubai last December and stopped in Guinea to refuel when they were met at the aircraft door by armed men and detained. He said they were charged with violating Guinean airspace, a charge he disputes, telling the station they were cleared for the approach and the landing and have the communications transcripts to back it up. Schlenker said the two were jailed, and that during his imprisonment a deadly prison riot left 33 inmates dead. The U.S. State Department said at the time that it was in contact with the pilots' families and that consular officers had visited four times. Schlenker said the businessman they were flying for eventually paid a $20,000 bond for each pilot, and that they were released to house arrest on March 13 before returning home on June 1. He told the station he plans to keep flying, but not anywhere near Guinea.

Our Take: A routine fuel stop became more than five months of captivity, a disputed charge, and a $20,000-per-head bond before even getting released, and by the pilot's account the official help amounted to a handful of consular visits.

For flight departments and operators, that is the lesson worth writing down: a tech stop is an operational decision with real geopolitical risk attached, and the jurisdictions you transit deserve as much planning as the ones you land in. It is also a reminder about duty of care. If your people end up in a situation like this, the time to have a plan, and the willingness to move fast, is before the door opens to anything other than a fuel truck. Mostly, we are just glad he is home and back with his family.

Read More: NBC Chicago

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The Scoop: Magellan Jets is planning a wave of acquisitions as it heads toward $200 million in sales this year, President Anthony Tivnan told Private Jet Card Comparisons, following a 26% jump in revenue and a 31% rise in jet card sales last year. The company, cofounded in 2008, has reshuffled its leadership to support the push. Matthew Harris, most recently chief operating officer and a former NetJets and Milestone Aviation Group executive, has been named chief strategy and growth officer and will lead the acquisition strategy, while former chief commercial officer Josh Lesnick steps into the COO role. Magellan said it is targeting brokerages that are a cultural and service fit, carry a strong reputation, and generate at least $25 million in sales. Alongside the M&A plan, the company launched Certified Advisor by Magellan Jets, a program that lets independent brokers tap its sourcing, billing, marketing, and support while keeping their own books, a model Tivnan likened to Virtuoso's host agencies. Magellan also revamped its jet card, which it said accounts for 70% of revenue, adding tiered long-flight discounts, regional Advantage Routes pricing, short-leg waivers, longer rate locks, and the option to buy hours as needed rather than in fixed blocks.

Our Take: Magellan is making a real bet here.. Buying up small, profitable books and pulling those advisors into a single platform is essentially the RIA playbook from wealth management, and hiring an executive with an M&A background to run it sends a clear signal to the market about how serious they are. The harder part is integration. Stitching together a dozen founder-led brokerages means getting everyone on the same sheet of music on standards, pricing, and culture, and that is where these plays usually live or die.

Read More: Private Jet Card Comparisons

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Airshare Turns a Viral Tweet Into the Cheapest Marketing Buy of the Summer

We had John Owen of Airshare, who turned a viral moment into a marketing stunt most teams would kill for. When the social media personality known as Freddy posted that he had missed his connection to a World Cup match, John replied with one of the great all-time lines, basically asking what time Freddy needed to land, with a chariot to Toronto standing by.

John told us the reply pulled in millions of impressions, and the whole thing landed him in the New York Post. The kicker: Airshare's only hard cost was an airport slot in Toronto, which John put at roughly $1,100. Freddy politely declined and found another way north. Eleven hundred dollars for that kind of earned media is what we would call a full-throttle return on investment. Wheels up, even if Freddy stayed wheels down.

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Jessie’s Links:
Private Aviation Safety Alliance
FlyVizor
LinkedIn

Preston’s Links:
Prestige Aircraft Finance
Private Jet Insider (Newsletter)
LinkedIn
X (Formerly Known as Twitter)
FastJets

Disclaimer: The VIP Seat Weekly is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Coverage of publicly traded companies reflects the personal opinions of the hosts and does not constitute investment, financial, tax, or legal advice, nor a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. The hosts are not registered investment advisors and may hold positions in companies discussed. All investments carry risk. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decision.