✈️ The VIP Seat Weekly

Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

November 11th, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 45 Companion | 13-minute read

Good morning and welcome back to the VIP Seat. This was a heavy week in private jet news. We start with the fatal Learjet 60 accident in Florida, and our hearts are with the families of the nine people who lost their lives. We focus on what is known, and on the myths that spread faster than the facts. Then Wheels Up places its first-ever order for new jets, Jeppesen stops printing paper charts, retired airliner engines find a second career powering AI data centers, and Fly Alliance splits apart again. We also tip our caps to Ed Bolen, who announced his retirement as NBAA president and CEO.

Happy Veteran’s Day - our deepest thank you to all who have served 🇺🇸

Sit back, buckle up, and let's take off.

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The Brief

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The Scoop: A Bombardier Learjet 60, N722BD, crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on November 1, killing all nine people aboard, according to AIN. The NTSB said the aircraft was operated by Aurora Aviation, doing business as Upper Jets, under Part 135, on a flight from Austin to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas. In a briefing, NTSB member Thomas Chapman confirmed that the jet's left elevator separated before impact and was found in three pieces up to four miles from the main crash site. AIN reports it is not yet clear when in the sequence the elevator detached, and investigators will try to determine whether its loss caused the loss of control or was a result of the overspeed the copilot reported on the radio as the descent rate exceeded 30,000 feet per minute. Chapman said weather is a key focus given the storms in the area. Per AIN, the captain held an ATP certificate with an unrestricted Learjet 60 type rating, and the first officer held a commercial certificate with a type rating requiring her to fly with a fully type-rated pilot in command. On November 9, AIN reported the NTSB had finished searching the surrounding area and turned its focus to the impact crater. No probable cause has been determined.

Why it matters: Viral posts, AI-generated videos, and statistical comparisons are shaping public perception of charter safety well ahead of the investigation, and operators and brokers are fielding those questions from clients right now.

Our Take: First, and most importantly, we are so sorry for the families and loved ones of everyone aboard. They are in our prayers. We do not speculate on accidents. We report what the NTSB reports. What we can do is call out the misinformation that has filled the vacuum.

Within hours, a post went viral on social media naming the wrong person as the pilot heard on the ATC audio. It was simply false, and it spread anyway. Next came commentary questioning why a young first officer was in the cockpit. Pairing a newer first officer with a senior captain is a normal and long-standing part of Part 135 operations; that is how pilots learn the aircraft. Age is not a measure of whether someone belongs in the right seat.

Then came the airframe. Long posts about the Learjet 60 and coffin corner racked up millions of views, along with claims that private jets are many times deadlier than the airlines. As of today, there is no indication that the design of the aircraft, the training of the crew, or the operation of the flight caused this accident. Anyone claiming to know what happened is speculating. Mach tuck and coffin corner are known phenomena for high-altitude, swept-wing aircraft in general, not a quirk unique to one airframe. One current Learjet 60 captain flying under Part 135 put it well in a widely shared post: the aircraft is highly capable, and calling it inherently unsafe based on a single accident or an unsupported statistic is irresponsible.

Here is the frustrating part. The industry cannot win a comment-section war. Nuance about safety envelopes, crew training, and the difference between Part 91, 135, and 121 does not get five million views. What does work is the one-on-one conversation with a client who asks. The data supports those conversations (see Further Reading below). And if there is a conversation worth having inside the industry, it is about high-altitude upset prevention and recovery training. As we understand it, the airlines have operated under an upset training mandate since 2019, and our part of the industry has no equivalent requirement. Whether or not that turns out to be relevant here, it is a fair question to ask.

Business aviation learns from every accident. Pilots we have talked to this week said the same thing: this is heartbreaking, and they will be better pilots for studying it once the facts are known. To every Learjet 60 operator having hard conversations with clients this week, we are rooting for you.

What to watch: The NTSB preliminary report, expected in the coming weeks, and what the CVR and weather data reveal.

Read More: AIN | AIN (November 9 update)

Further Reading:

The Scoop: Wheels Up has placed its first order for new aircraft, six Embraer Phenom 300Es for delivery in the second half of 2027, according to Corporate Jet Investor. CEO George Mattson told CJI the company remains opportunistic about buying aircraft and has relied on the deep secondary market for Phenoms and Challengers, but saw an opportunity to work with Embraer on this order. Financing comes largely from an existing aircraft facility with Bank of America, with Sankaty Jet Capital providing mezzanine financing. Wheels Up also announced an additional $100 million revolving credit facility commitment from Delta. Third-quarter figures reported by CJI:

Why it matters: A first new-aircraft order is a signal of confidence in the Phenom and Challenger strategy, and Wheels Up has been an active buyer in the used Phenom 300 market.

Our Take: What follows is commentary and opinion, not investment or financial advice.

We go back and forth on Wheels Up, and this week is no different. The bull case: you do not place a new aircraft order unless you see light at the end of the tunnel. The mix shift to the Signature program is working, margins are improving on lower revenue, and Delta keeps extending support. We said last quarter the company had until the end of this year to start proving the model, and this quarter is evidence in that direction. Q4 should be the best revenue quarter of the year, so that is the one to watch.

The bear case lives on the balance sheet. By our read of the filings, cash and equivalents fell again this quarter. Mezzanine financing, sale-leaseback restructurings, and a growing Delta credit line are all consequential, and not cheap. Our read of the Delta facility terms is that fees are paid in kind, which in simple terms means the more Delta lends, the more of Wheels Up it may ultimately own. We are not suggesting anything improper. It is a question of how much runway the turnaround needs, and whether that runway holds.

On price, the reported figures do not disclose what Wheels Up paid. Our back-of-the-napkin math from the deposit suggests a modest discount from list, somewhere around $14.5 million per aircraft. That is our estimate, not a disclosed number. Six aircraft is a small order next to the big fractional fleets, so we would not expect a deep discount, and with today's order book, getting delivery slots at all is notable. Wheels Up's demand has also helped firm up used Phenom 300 values, which is worth watching for owners on the other side of that market.

What to watch: Q4 results, cash burn, and whether more factory orders follow.

Read More: Corporate Jet Investor

The Scoop: Jeppesen ended all paper chart printing services on October 31, 2026, and all remaining paper chart subscriptions ended November 1, according to General Aviation News. The company says it will credit subscribers for unused subscription periods and is encouraging pilots to move to digital charts and electronic flight bag platforms, including ForeFlight Mobile and ForeFlight on the Web. Jeppesen has cited the growing cost of managing paper as a driver of the change. The move follows Boeing's sale of Jeppesen and ForeFlight to private equity firm Thoma Bravo, a transaction valued at $10.55 billion that closed in late 2025.

Why it matters: Paper Jepps were a fixture of flight bags and training rooms for generations, and their end completes the shift to digital charting for most operators.

Our Take: It is the end of an era. Hang on to your old charts; maybe they become collectibles one day, like the VHS tapes that are somehow back in style. We understand the economics. Printing is expensive, and the costs of paper, ink, production, and freight all climbed sharply after COVID. Moving pallets of printed paper around the world is a bigger cost than most people realize. When few customers still use the product, it becomes a cost center, and finding those is exactly what private equity owners do.

We do not think there is anything scary about the end of paper charts in the cockpit. The one thing we will miss is in flight training: sitting at a table with an instructor, a chart spread out, talking through the plan with something tactile in front of you. That will have to happen on screens now.

What to watch: Whether operators lean on self-printing from EFB apps as a backup, and what else gets trimmed under new ownership.

Read More: General Aviation News

The Scoop: Retired engines from Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s can be worth more as generators for AI data centers than as parts, according to AeroTime. Data center developers can wait years for a grid connection, and converted engines let them generate power on site. FTAI Aviation has contracts to deliver more than 100 CFM56-based generators in the US and Canada in 2027 and 2028, and says its Mod-1 unit met targets of 23 megawatts continuous and 25 megawatts peak output in testing. An unnamed cloud computing company placed a $1.465 billion order through FTAI's joint venture with Jereh Group. AeroTime, citing The New York Times, reports that xAI installed eight converted aircraft turbines in Mississippi. FTAI's CEO told investors the engines are worth more to the company than their parts value in the secondary market. Boom Supersonic is also developing a 42-megawatt ground turbine for data centers, with Crusoe ordering 29 units.

Why it matters: Engines that would have been torn down for parts now have a new, well-funded bidder, and that changes the supply picture for the aftermarket.

Our Take: Another day, another AI story. We talked a few months ago about Boom becoming an AI power company while it works on supersonic flight, and this is the same trend with scrapped engines. It makes sense: a generator does not need the near-perfect reliability an engine on a wing does.

The question we keep coming back to is when this starts to hurt out-of-production aircraft. At what point does a perfectly viable engine leave a rental pool, or a flyable airframe get parted out, because it is worth more behind a data center than in the air? We are less worried about competing for old CFMs than about the parts and supply chain, which are already strained. Data centers will need components and raw materials to keep these units running too. There is also a public angle: concern about rising power prices has fueled pushback against data centers, and generating power on site, behind the meter, sidesteps the grid entirely. We would expect this trend to continue.

What to watch: Aftermarket engine values and parts availability, which could get tighter.

Read More: AeroTime

The Scoop: The transition between Fly Alliance and its former owner has turned contentious, according to Private Jet Card Comparisons. In July, Fly Alliance CEO Christopher Tasca led a management buyout of the company from then-majority owner Kevin Wargo. The company included a charter operator, a maintenance business, a spare parts division, and a charter and jet card brokerage. In August, Fly Alliance sold the parts division to Wargo, who also launched a competing charter and brokerage business under the Sky Travel Solutions banner. Last week, both confirmed the sale of Fly Alliance's Part 135 and maintenance certificates to Wargo's company, Cove Capital, which said it would rebrand the certificate as Atelier Aviation. Both said the fleet would be split. Per Tasca, Fly Alliance continues as a charter and jet card brokerage with around 350 jet card members. On November 9, PJCC reported that an email from an Atelier Aviation (the new name for the Fly Alliance Part 135 cert) representative told customers the Fly Alliance Part 135 operation had shut its doors and its fleet could no longer accommodate their trips. Tasca disputed that characterization in a statement to PJCC, saying Fly Alliance has not shut down and that affected flights are being handled through a new operating partnership the company expects to announce this week. PJCC reported that Wargo was unavailable for comment. Fly Alliance was co-founded by Wargo and Tasca in 2019 and was the 14th-largest U.S. private jet operator by charter and fractional hours last year, per PJCC.

Why it matters: Brokers and jet card holders with trips on the books need clarity on who is operating their flights during the handoff.

Our Take: We rang the M&A gong for the management buyout in July. Consider it un-rung. This one is hard to follow, and what was announced in July did not fully play out as planned. When a Part 135 certificate changes hands, the buyer typically acquires the stock of the entity that holds it, and that is what is moving here, but not all of the aircraft are moving with it. Where those aircraft land is not settled, so we are not going to report on it until it is.

The bigger theme is one we have been tracking all year: pressure on small and mid-sized fleets that are not NetJets, Flexjet, or VistaJet. This is another reshuffle in the wholesale charter market, and we will see what Fly Alliance builds in retail charter from here.

The M&A gong is brought to you by Oshman Aviation. Thanks for sponsoring the gong, even when we un-ring it.

What to watch: Fly Alliance's new operating partner announcement, and where the fleet settles.

Read More: Private Jet Card Comparisons

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Mile High Madness is brought to you by Wingform, the private aircraft transaction hub.

Private Jet Etiquette 101

Most of us in the industry rarely ride in the back with an actual principal. So here is a public service announcement that made the rounds on Instagram: when the person who paid for the jet tells a joke, you laugh. Hard. Even if it is not funny. They are the funniest, most charming person you know, at least until wheels down. Honestly, this is just good etiquette in general.

The Hardest-Working Phenom in the World

A list making the rounds on LinkedIn ranked the most productive private jets of the last three months, citing WingX data (and clearly built with some AI help). VistaJet dominated, with one aircraft logging around 500 hours on just over 100 landings. But scroll down to the Wheels Up Phenom 300: roughly 432 hours and about 310 landings in three months. That is a lot of short hops, and a lot of brake and tire wear. You can tell the King Air flying moved into the Phenoms. Dispatch reliability, baby. Somebody get that airplane a set of new wheels.

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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. Descriptions of the November 1 Learjet 60 accident reflect NTSB statements and published reports; no probable cause has been determined, and nothing in this issue should be read as a finding about the cause of the accident or the conduct of any person or company. Descriptions of company announcements, transactions, and disputes reflect published reports and the statements of the parties, and are not findings of fact by The VIP Seat, its hosts, or any company named. Estimates of undisclosed figures are labeled as such and reflect the opinions of the hosts. AB Jets, REAL Jet, Oshman Aviation, and Wingform are sponsors of The VIP Seat. 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.