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Chinese Private Jets, First Global 8000 Delivered, Netjets Customer Skips Bills

Plus, we have book recommendations and Baker expands their fleet of CL300's!

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Jessica Naor & Preston Holland
December 09, 2025

✈️ The VIP Seat Weekly

Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh

Season 2, Episode 27 | December 9th, 2025 | Episode Companion

Welcome back to The VIP Seat. The holiday season is upon us! This week: China's throwing its hat into the business jet ring (sort of), Baker Aviation is going full rodeo on the Challenger 300 market, NetJets is taking a customer to court, the FBI Director is the latest target in the "politicians on private jets" discourse, and Bombardier finally delivered its new flagship. Let's get into it.

This Week’s Episode is Brought To You By:

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🛫 The Runway Report

The top stories from this week's podcast that are moving the needle in bizav

China Wants to Sell You a Business Jet (Kind Of)

Comac, China's state-owned commercial aircraft manufacturer, showed off its CBJ (Comac Business Jet) at an exhibition in Guangzhou, signaling intent to compete in the large cabin VIP aircraft market. This is essentially a converted regional airliner, closer to a Challenger 850 or Legacy 600 than anything in the purpose-built business jet category.

The specs aren't particularly competitive: limited range, altitude that won't impress anyone, and one configuration seats 29 passengers (making it more of a JSX super-commuter competitor than a Gulfstream alternative). It has reportedly been engineered for China's tricky high-elevation airports, which tells you something about the intended market.

The Hot Take: We don’t think that Gulfstream should be shaking in their boots. China has struggled to gain traction in commercial aviation manufacturing, and the business jet market presents even more hurdles—tariffs, geopolitical tension, and the reality that few Western buyer wants to navigate the nuances of Chinese-imported aircraft. Could it find traction in the Middle East or emerging Asian markets where brand origin matters less? Maybe. To compare it to transcontinental purpose built bizjets is a bit of a stretch.

🤠 Baker Aviation Goes Full Rodeo

Baker Aviation just scooped up a batch of Challenger 300s from Flexjet's rotated-out fleet, expanding their wholesale-only operation with some serious super-mid muscle. The Fort Worth-based operator (you'll know their planes by the "RODEO" painted in big blue letters) now ranks as the 13th largest U.S. private jet operator by fractional charter flights.

Under Tim Livingston's ownership since June 2022, Baker has grown to 23 aircraft, adding to their existing Citation Ten fleet. They also developed the Starlink STC for the Citation Ten… a $2 million investment that's now paying dividends across the industry.

Why It Matters: The Challenger 300/350 market continues to get tighter. Between Wheels Up, Craft, and now Baker actively acquiring these aircraft, supply is getting choked while demand from fleet operators stays strong. These Flexjet birds are probably high-time workhorses—think 10,000+ hours, maybe mismatched engine times, interiors redone—but for a wholesale operator focused on flow rather than fractional clients, they're the perfect fit. It's the aircraft equivalent of buying an ex-rental car fleet: nothing wrong with it, you just know what you're getting.

💸 NetJets Takes a Customer to Court Over Unpaid Bills

In "stories we didn't see coming" news, NetJets has filed a lawsuit against Colin Fan, a former Deutsche Bank and SoftBank executive, alleging he signed a lease agreement in March, flew through June, and simply... never paid. The amount is over $75,000 (the threshold for federal court), though the total remains unclear.

The case has already gotten interesting: NetJets tried to redact significant information, but the judge pushed back, requiring more transparency. This could reveal competitive details about NetJets' lease and jet card structures.

The Hot Take: Something doesn't add up here. Colin Fan isn't some random defaulter—he's a legitimate private jet customer with a track record at major financial institutions. We still are curious… how does anyone fly for three months without a deposit? We'll be watching this one closely—especially for what the discovery process reveals.

🏛️ Kash Patel and the Political Football That Is Private Aviation

Read More: The Hill

FBI Director Kash Patel is catching heat for using the government Gulfstream to visit his girlfriend's wrestling event, hit Broadway in Nashville, and visit a Texas hunting ranch. Cue the outrage machine.

Here's the thing: the law requires the FBI Director to use government aircraft for security purposes—and whether you like Patel or not, there are absolutely people who would love to harm the Director of the FBI. Every predecessor has used the aircraft for similar personal travel and reimbursed at the commercial airline rate. That's literally how the law is written.

The Hot Take: If Congress wants to change the reimbursement rules, they're welcome to. But calling out Patel for doing exactly what every FBI Director before him has done is intellectually dishonest.

🚀 Bombardier Delivers Its First Global 8000

Read More: AIN Online

The fastest civilian aircraft since Concorde has officially entered service. Bombardier delivered the first Global 8000 to Patrick Dovigi, founder and CEO of GFL Environmental (yes, a waste management company… garbage executives always have the best toys).

The Global 8000 cruises at Mach 0.94 and can probably bust the sound barrier with ease. At 41,000 feet, cabin altitude sits at just 2,691 feet—lower than Las Vegas. It's a Global 7500 with a software patch and a new pressurization nozzle, but sometimes incremental improvements are all you need.

Fun Fact: Canadian rock star Tom Cochrane performed at the delivery ceremony. Because of course he did. (He wrote the song: Life is a Highway. Bit of a 1 hit wonder)

🤳 Mile High Madness

This week's wildest aviation content from social media

John Wayne's Wild Departure Procedures: A visualization making the rounds on X shows just how absurd the noise abatement procedures are at John Wayne Airport (SNA). Short 5,700-foot runway means NASCAR-style takeoffs—toes on the brakes, throttle up, release and climb like a bat out of hell to 1,000 feet, then immediately pull back power to keep the rich neighbors happy, before resuming climb over the ocean. The irony? All that aggressive climb-and-cut probably dumps more exhaust on the surrounding area than a normal departure would.

The Falcon 20's Fighter Jet Roots: Jessie did a deep dive on the Coast Guard's afterburner-equipped Falcon 20s and discovered the aircraft's wild origin story. The Falcon 20 came directly off Dassault's fighter jet line with afterburners standard—they just removed them for civilian use. Pan Am financed 180 of them in the 1960s, which is why the line existed in the first place. Similar fighter-to-business-jet DNA runs through Hawker, Learjet, and even the early Gulfstream lineage. Makes you wish they'd left the afterburners on—we know buyers who'd pay the premium just for bragging rights.

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🎧 This Week's Episode

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The VIP Seat Weekly is the companion newsletter to The VIP Seat podcast. We give you the business aviation hot takes for your commute.

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