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Expensive 135 Certificates, Big Bombardier Order, and ATC Funding

Plus, Embraer deliveries might be back on track, and two US states fly more than all of Europe combined.

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Jessica Naor & Preston Holland
July 08, 2025

✈️ The VIP Seat Weekly

Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh

This Week: $2M Volato charter certificate sale shocks industry, mystery $1.7B Bombardier order sparks speculation, ATC gets $1.25B upgrade funding, and US private jet activity dominates globally.

Season 2, Episode 6 | July 8, 2025 | Episode Companion

🛫 The Runway Report

The top 5 stories from this week's podcast that are moving the needle in bizav

1️⃣ Charter Certificate Sells for Mind-Blowing $2 Million

The Scoop: Volato's charter certificate (with no aircraft, no international ops, and accident history) sold for a whopping $2 million cash - roughly double what premium certificates typically go for. The buyer remains anonymous, and industry veterans are scratching their heads.

Our Take: This is what happens when you can't get new certificates approved because the FAA lacks funding and staff. Hot take alert: Maybe we should've kept those user fees instead of creating a black market where clean certificates cost more than some aircraft. You either pay on the front end or get gouged on the back end.

2️⃣ Mystery Buyer Drops $1.7B on Bombardier Jets (Who TF Is It?)

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The Scoop: An unnamed customer placed an order for 50 Bombardier business jets (Globals and Challengers) worth $1.7 billion, with options that could hit 120 aircraft at $4 billion total. That's half of Bombardier's entire 2024 sales budget, and nobody knows who bought them.

Our Take: Bombardier stock is going bonkers and the speculation is wild. Saudi royal family? Sovereign wealth fund? Kenny Dichter making the ultimate power move? (Okay, that last one requires a tinfoil hat, but it would be legendary.) Doubtful it's NetJets or Flexjet - those guys never miss a PR opportunity.

3️⃣ ATC Finally Gets the Money It Desperately Needs

The Scoop: The federal budget allocates $1.25 billion for air traffic control upgrades, including new radar systems, getting off copper wire, and retiring legacy systems from basically the World War I era. Proposals are due by end of July with implementation targeting 2025-2027.

Our Take: About d*mn time. When the controllers can literally see aircraft out the window but their screens show outdated info, you know the system is broken. The DC tragedy was the wake-up call, but this tech should've been upgraded decades ago.

4️⃣ America Flexes: Private Jet Activity Crushes Europe

The Scoop: Florida and Texas alone now have more private jet activity than all 27 EU countries combined. Per capita, Americans fly private jets seven times more than Europeans - 687 flights per 10,000 people vs. 107 in France.

Our Take: We dumped your tea in the harbor, now we're burning your fuel. American exceptionalism at its finest. Geography matters - you can cross Europe in a day by train, but try getting from Chicago to San Francisco without wanting to die. Plus, no income tax in Florida and Texas doesn't hurt either.

5️⃣ Embraer Praetor Deliveries Finally Catching Fire

The Scoop: Embraer is delivering Praetors at unprecedented pace with 86% year-over-year increase in Praetor 600 deliveries. They delivered 15 Praetor 600s and 11 500s in Q2 2025, nearly doubling last year's first-half numbers.

Our Take: Supply chain recovery is real, but still not keeping up with demand. The Praetor market is insane because there aren't many comparable airframes, and the big fleets ate up most of the production slots. Still looking at 2+ year waits if you order today.

🤳 Mile High Madness

This week's wildest aviation content from social media

Spirit Airlines Fire Suppression Disaster: Talk about a bad 4th of July - Spirit's hangar fire suppression system went off, flooding not just the hangar but spilling onto the ramp. Multiple aircraft got doused in corrosive foam that's absolute hell to clean off. The hits keep coming for Spirit between merger failures and now this mess.

Southwest Flight Attendant Goes Full Gymnast: A Southwest FA decided to close overhead bins with her feet while doing gymnastics moves and shaking her butt at passengers. Look, we get that Southwest used to be fun, but if you're a business traveler just trying to get from A to B, this ain't it. All the more reason to fly private.

Why it matters: When commercial aviation becomes either a corrosive foam party or an unwanted floor show, private aviation starts looking pretty appealing.

⚡ Quick Hits

Other stories on our radar

  • NOTAM System Upgrade - New system testing this month, rollout by September 2025. Still will be in ALL CAPS because apparently we like our NOTAMs to scream at us.

  • Pilatus PC-12 Backlog - Now stretching 4-5 years depending who you ask. Insanity, but demand keeps climbing.

  • User Fee Debate - Industry fought user fees for decades, now we're paying $2M for basic certificates. Maybe we should've just paid a few thousand upfront?

🎧 This Week's Episode

Missed the podcast? Listen to the full episode where we dive deeper into certificate valuations, conspiracy theories about mystery buyers, and why American aviation dominance makes us proud. Be sure to leave us a 5

✈️ The Final Approach

Summer's here and the aviation news cycle is heating up despite the season. From $2M certificates to billion-dollar mystery orders, this industry never fails to surprise us. Keep those tips coming - if you've got insider info on who bought all those Bombardiers, slide into our DMs.

Next Week: Oshkosh is coming up at the end of the month, so we might actually have some announcements to cover. Until then, stay cool and fly smart.

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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