✈️ The VIP Seat Weekly

Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

April 1st, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 13 Companion

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THIS WEEK'S STORIES

1️⃣ The G650 Is Defying Gravity
2️⃣ Delta Private Jets Is Back Online... But It's a Scam
3️⃣ FlyExclusive Drops Contrails on the Industry
4️⃣ Sam Graves Is Retiring.
5️⃣ The World Cup Regulatory Minefield Is Real

Let’s dive into it this week.

1️⃣ THE G650 IS DEFYING GRAVITY

The Scoop

Greg Sydor from Guardian Jet got some heads turning a post on X laying out something that does not happen very often in our world: a large cabin jet is actually appreciating in value. The Gulfstream G650, one of the most coveted ultra-long-range aircraft ever built, has seen values tick up 2 to 3% over the last 12 months, which translates to roughly $1 to $3 million per airframe. We brought Greg on this week's episode to unpack it.

Guardian Jet has been tracking every significant aircraft trade across roughly 100 models for the last decade, so when Greg talks markets, people listen. Here is what is actually happening.

The traditional depreciation expectation for an aircraft like the G650 has historically been 6 to 8% per year. But since 2018, the G650 has only depreciated a cumulative 15 to 16% total. And now, over the past 12 months, it has actually gone the other direction.

Why? It comes down to a confluence of demand drivers hitting at the same time. Four distinct cohorts are all chasing the same airplane: high net worth individuals, corporate Fortune flight departments, charter operators, and fractional operators. Most models only appeal to two or three of those groups. The G650 appears to appeal to all four.

Add to that a new phenomenon: first-time buyers skipping the traditional progression through light and midsize jets entirely and going straight to large cabin. And on top of that, a cascade effect from the G700 and G800 deliveries. As operators at the top upgrade into the newest generation, their G650s hit the market, which frees up G550 owners to step up, and so on. Rather than crushing G650 values as some predicted, the OEM launch has created a waterfall of activity that is keeping the whole large cabin segment busy.

The supply side makes this even more acute. A year ago there were 35 to 40 G650s available for sale. Today there are only three or four. If you want one, you are likely paying a 10% premium and working with a broker who has off-market access, because many of these trades are never hitting the public market.

There is also an international angle. The tariff environment made the G650 a particularly attractive choice for foreign buyers who wanted an asset they could liquidate back into the deepest resale market in the world, without tariff exposure.

Our Take

This story matters for several different audiences. For anyone in aircraft finance, the depreciation schedule assumptions that underpin most loan structures are built on historical norms that simply have not held for this category. Lenders who were applying standard residual value models to large cabin Gulfstreams over the last seven years would have been structurally conservative, which is actually good news for collateral coverage. But it does raise questions about how to model the next cycle.

For buyers and flight departments, the value play Greg articulates is genuinely compelling. You are getting roughly 85 to 90% of the capability of a brand new G800 at approximately half the acquisition cost, without a multi-year delivery wait. For a corporate flight department that needs to move on this year's budget cycle, that is a serious argument.

Read More

• Greg Sydor on X: The G650 Thread

2️⃣ DELTA PRIVATE JETS IS BACK ONLINE... BUT IT IS A SCAM

The Scoop

Delta Private Jets was sold by Delta Air Lines to Wheels Up in 2019, with the deal closing in early 2020. Since early 2021, DeltaPrivateJets.com had been redirecting to WheelsUp.com. Sometime recently, that redirect stopped. The website is now back online presenting itself as Delta Private Jets, but it is not affiliated with Wheels Up or Delta Air Lines in any way.

There is an ICANN dispute process for former owners to attempt to reclaim domains, but it is not quick or guaranteed.

A giveaway that something is off: the site carries a 2011 copyright date, features old disclaimers, and advertises rates as low as $4,750 per hour for a light jet. Phone numbers on the site appear to be disconnected.

A Wheels Up spokesperson confirmed the situation publicly, stating that the site is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wheels Up or Delta Air Lines, that they are taking steps to address the issue, and that customers should only engage through official Wheels Up channels and should not share personal, financial, or account information with any unaffiliated site.

Our Take

This is a cautionary tale on multiple fronts. The obvious one is for anyone searching for Delta Private Jets services: that brand no longer exists as a standalone entity, and the website is not legitimate. Do not submit personal or financial information there.

The less obvious lesson is about domain management in M&A transactions. When a brand is acquired and sunset, the intellectual property checklist has to include domain renewal on indefinite auto-renew, not just a five-year horizon. It only takes one lapse and a motivated buyer on an expired domain auction to create exactly this kind of problem.

The Delta Private Jets brand carries significant name recognition with the high net worth individuals who were historically its customer base. An executive assistant booking travel or a first-time charter buyer could see that URL and not think twice about it. The deposit exposure on a private jet booking is significant.

The current site's owners also control the DeltaPrivateJets.com email domain, which means they can send outbound emails that appear to come from that address. That is a meaningful phishing vector. Flag it for your clients.

Read More

• Private Jet Card Comparisons: Delta Private Jets Is Back Online, But It's a Fake Website

3️⃣ FLYEXCLUSIVE DROPS CONTRAILS ON THE INDUSTRY

The Scoop

flyExclusive (NYSE American: FLYX) made two notable announcements at the NBAA Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference in Cleveland this week: the filing of a utility patent application for a novel aircraft schedule optimization architecture, and the availability of Contrails, its Flight Management System, to other Part 135 operators beginning in Q2 2026.

The patent application, titled "Aircraft Schedule Optimization," describes a graph-based system that precomputes valid flight sequences across the entire fleet in advance, so that when something goes wrong operationally, the recovery answer is already there rather than requiring a full recalculation from scratch.

Contrails was built by combining flyExclusive's operational experience with intellectual property acquired from Volato Group, including Volato's Mission Control flight management system. The platform integrates scheduling, crew compliance, dispatch, disruption recovery, fleet optimization, and wholesale charter coordination into a single system.

The headline is the pricing: free. flyExclusive is offering Contrails to other Part 135 operators at no license cost starting in Q2 2026. CEO Jim Segrave stated directly that the company is currently unable to source lift for nearly 300 trip requests per day and believes Contrails will allow them to address that demand more efficiently through coordination with other operators.

Our Take

The "free software to competitors" play sounds counterintuitive until you look at who actually benefits. flyExclusive is not primarily trying to sell scheduling software. They are trying to solve the aggregated supply visibility problem that every broker and operator in this industry struggles with, and position themselves as the center of that network.

If you are on Contrails, you are sharing aircraft availability data with flyExclusive. The stated architecture is designed so that customer identity and proprietary pricing data stay protected. But the network intelligence, specifically knowing where capacity exists across a large portion of the Part 135 operator universe, is enormously valuable for a company turning away hundreds of trip requests daily.

As Jessie raised on the show, the antitrust question is worth watching. There is a meaningful difference between a neutral third party aggregating supply data and a competing operator doing the same thing. How flyExclusive firewalls itself from sensitive information used for its own commercial benefit will be the question regulators and operators alike will scrutinize as this rolls out.

For smaller operators that have been running optimization on spreadsheets and phone calls, the free price point is genuinely hard to ignore. But as we said on the show: if it is free, your data is the product. Something to weigh carefully.

Read More

• Private Jet Card Comparisons: FlyExclusive Files Patent for Aircraft Scheduling Software

• flyExclusive Investor Relations: Full Press Release

4️⃣ SAM GRAVES IS RETIRING.

The Scoop

Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), the 13-term congressman who has served as the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee since 2019 and as its chairman since 2023, announced Friday that he will not seek reelection. He is 62 years old and has represented Missouri's 6th District since 2001.

In his statement, Graves said he believed in making room for the next generation and described it as the right time to pass the torch. The announcement came just before the March 31 candidate filing deadline in Missouri.

The aviation industry's reaction was immediate and pointed. AOPA called Graves a fierce advocate for general aviation and cited his work on the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act, which included the first-ever dedicated General Aviation title in a reauthorization bill, as well as BasicMed and the current ALERT Act. The ALERT Act, which passed two key House committees this week, is the legislative response to the January 2025 collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

House Transportation ranking member Rep. Rick Larsen said Congress was losing a fierce advocate for infrastructure investment and transportation safety. EAA CEO Jack Pelton echoed those sentiments, pointing to Graves' tireless cross-party work on aviation legislation. It is unclear at this point who will succeed Graves as the Republican leader on the committee, though Graves reportedly suggested Rep. David Rouzer of North Carolina as best positioned.

Our Take

We said it on the show and we will say it here: this is a real loss for the industry, and it is worth taking a moment to recognize how rare it is to have a committee chairman who is genuinely a GA pilot and understands this world from both the cockpit and the policy desk.

The ALERT Act, the 2024 FAA reauthorization, BasicMed, the first General Aviation title in a reauthorization bill: these outcomes did not happen by accident. They happened because there was someone in a position of institutional power who was both willing and able to shepherd them through. Replacing 25 years of seniority and committee relationships is not something that happens quickly.

This is NBAA's chance to shine with its advocacy infrastructure. Identifying, cultivating, and supporting the next champion for business and general aviation in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. There are GA pilots in Congress. There are private aviation users in positions of influence across both parties. The industry needs to be intentional about supporting those voices into the committee structure.

Read More

• AIN Online: House T&I Chairman Graves To Retire from Congress

• AOPA: Statement on Retirement of House T&I Chairman Sam Graves

• AVweb: House Transportation Chair Sam Graves To Retire

5️⃣ THE WORLD CUP REGULATORY CHALLENGES

The Scoop

The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs June 11 through July 19, spanning host cities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. If you are planning to move clients, principals, or aircraft during that window, the time to be working on permits and logistics is right now, not in May.

The Mexico situation is the most urgent piece. AFAC has discontinued single-entry landing permits for charter operators. All charter operators must now hold a Blanket Permit validated alongside their Air Operator Certificate, and processing times have been extended to up to 90 business days under ideal conditions. That means operators who have not already started the process may find themselves effectively locked out of Mexico for the tournament's opening rounds.

Private Part 91 operations have their own compliance layer. Operators must obtain a Single Entry Authorization (AIU) and carry a physical "Relationship Letter" documenting the lead passenger's connection to the aircraft and the relationship of every accompanying passenger. This is not optional: AFAC ramp inspectors are requiring it to verify the non-commercial nature of flights. Mexico has also implemented a two-step APIS protocol requiring an initial notice between 2 and 24 hours before departure, plus a mandatory second transmission the moment aircraft doors close. Failure to execute that second step correctly can result in fines of approximately $15,000 per infraction.

In the U.S., the FAA is enforcing strict Traffic Management Initiatives around host cities. Pilots must file flight plans at least 6 hours, but no more than 24 hours, prior to departure. No airborne IFR filings or mid-air destination changes will be accepted within 200 nautical miles of host regions. During Ground Delay Programs, aircraft must depart within a 5-minute window of their assigned Expect Departure Clearance Time. If a VIP passenger arrives at the FBO late and that window is missed, the flight plan is voided and the aircraft drops to the back of the regional departure queue.

Canada, hosting matches in Vancouver and Toronto, requires CANPASS arrival notification no less than 2 hours and no more than 48 hours prior to ETA. CBSA has flagged zero tolerance for documentation errors during peak arrival windows.

Cabotage exposure is significant across all three nations. Foreign charter operators moving revenue passengers between two domestic points within the U.S. or Mexico are in violation of domestic cabotage law. Know your operator's registration and legal standing before you book anything.

Our Take

The operators who will win World Cup business are the ones who started preparing in Q4 2025. Those trying to sort out Mexico blanket permits in late May will learn the hard way why lead time matters in international operations.

For operators with less experience in large international events, this is a real moment to be selective about what you take on. The slot environment at U.S. game-day airports is going to be unlike anything outside of a Super Bowl or major state visit, and the Mexico compliance picture is genuinely complex. Partnering with a handler that has specific World Cup experience and established AFAC relationships will be necessary.

One underreported angle: Customs and Border Protection continues to operate with workforce constraints, and after-hours or unscheduled international arrivals on private aircraft may face delays even in the U.S. Build buffer time into your schedules. And if your passengers need the restroom before departure, make sure they go before they board.

Read More

• Flapper: The 2026 Cross-Border City Hop: A Corporate Travel Planner's Guide to Tri-Nation Private Jet Customs

MILE HIGH MADNESS

End User of the Week

Not often do end users post about flying private, but this week Don Carlos Miranda on X gave us something wholesome. He arrived 10 minutes before his flight and was greeted with sparkling water and a yogurt parfait. His caption: "Love me some NetJets, thank you God." He is a fractional owner and helicopter parts industry operator, fully embedded in the ecosystem. We love seeing it, especially during a week when four-hour TSA lines dominated the news cycle. This is exactly the kind of contrast that tells the story of why business aviation exists.

Aviation Art in the Wild

A Boeing 747 has been wedged between two apartment buildings in Seattle as a tribute to Boeing's history in the Pacific Northwest. It is the Queen of the Skies, and yes, it looks as cool as it sounds. If you are looking for a conversation piece for your office, look up Moto Art for wing section desks with glass tops. They are expensive. We do not own one. Sponsorship welcomed?

Thanks to our guest this week, Greg Sydor of Guardian Jet. Find him on X at @sydor_greg or reach him at [email protected].

🎧 This Week's Episode

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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