Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

July 22nd, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 28 Companion

Good morning and welcome back to the VIP Seat, coming to you this week live from EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, fighter jets in the background and all. This week we are covering a six-pack of beer that made it all the way to the Supreme Court, a report on the reports covering the MRO market and the global wealth barometer, Textron's new MOSAIC-ready Pipistrel Voyager, Gianni Infantino's World Cup air miles, and the AI wealth wave that is quietly draining the private jet market. Sit back, buckle up, and let's take off.

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The Scoop: On July 20, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Jouppi v. Alaska, a case that started all the way back in 2012. Ken Jouppi, an 82-year-old retired Fairbanks bush pilot, was preparing to fly a passenger and her groceries to a dry Alaska village when state troopers searched the plane and found beer belonging to the passenger; according to court records, Jouppi was held culpable for a single six-pack that troopers said was in plain sight. He was convicted of a misdemeanor, fined $1,500, and sentenced to three days in jail. Alaska also moved to forfeit his 1969 Cessna U206D, valued at roughly $95,000, and in 2025 the Alaska Supreme Court ruled the forfeiture was not "grossly disproportional" under the Eighth Amendment. Jouppi, represented by the Institute for Justice, is asking the justices to apply the Excessive Fines Clause and strike the forfeiture down. Oral arguments are expected this fall, with SCOTUSblog reporting the case will likely be argued in December.

Our Take: A $95,000 airplane for a six-pack of beer is, in our view, a punishment wildly out of proportion to the offense. The pilot was not the one who packed the beer; if anyone should have been on the hook, it is the passenger who brought it aboard.

The bigger reason every listener should care: this case tests how far civil asset forfeiture can reach when the "instrumentality" is an aircraft. If a strict standard survives, what does that mean for a Part 135 operator who unknowingly carries something illegal in a passenger's suitcase? It is worth reviewing your contract of carriage and thinking hard about where culpability sits for what is in the baggage compartment. This one is on final for a decision by next summer, and we will be watching.

Read More: SCOTUSblog

The Scoop: Research and Markets released its "Private Aircraft MRO Market - Global Forecast 2026-2032" this month, and the topline numbers are strong. The private aircraft MRO market was valued at $29.44 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $45.47 billion by 2032, a 6.4 percent compound annual growth rate. The report points to digital and predictive maintenance, aircraft health monitoring, and electronic records as key growth drivers, alongside a wave of senior technician retirements that is tightening the labor pool. It also flags 2025 U.S. tariffs as a force reshaping parts sourcing, cost structures, and inventory strategy, and describes OEM shops and independent providers as increasingly competing for the same service work.

Our Take: The number that popped for us was the CAGR: 6.4 percent beats inflation and beats the typical three percent growth target most industries would kill for. It brings us back to our conversation with Nick Fazioli about durability and ‘picks and shovels’ businesses: in MRO you do not have to pick a winner, you just have to be there when somebody wins. Expect more capital to flow in, from startup money to retrading large platforms, and keep an eye on the divergence between OEM MRO and third party MRO.

Our one concern is that consolidation can push prices to the point where whole aircraft ownership stops penciling. We have watched it with FBO fees; when private equity comes in, prices tend to rise to hit targets. If your engine overhaul budget doubles, all of a sudden fractional starts looking pretty good. The counterpoint is that markets self-correct, and specialized smaller shops doing one airframe very well can keep the ecosystem honest. Scarcity of hangar space and technicians means pricing power for MROs either way.

Read More: GlobeNewswire

The Scoop: WealthBriefing published a deep dive using private aviation as a barometer for global wealth. Citing Fortune Business Insights, the piece pegs the global business jet market at $46.51 billion in 2024, an estimated $48.13 billion in 2025, and a forecast $67.68 billion by 2032, roughly a five percent compound annual growth rate. Fractional ownership specifically is projected to nearly double, from $11.2 billion in 2024 to $23.7 billion by 2033. The wealth data is where it gets interesting: according to Wealth-X figures cited in the report, the average private jet owner globally has a net worth of $1.66 billion and spends about one percent of it on the aircraft, an average outlay of $16.4 million per plane. Middle Eastern owners reportedly skew younger, averaging 59.1 years old versus 63.6 globally, and spend nearly three times the global average per aircraft.

Our Take: We think that billionaire-average stat is probably off, or at least skewed by the ultra long range segment. Do the math: one percent of $1.66 billion puts everybody in a $16 million airplane, which writes out of the story your entire GIV-SP, GV, XL, XLS, and CJ owner pools and more. There are plenty of buyers worth $250 million or half a billion flying perfectly good private jets, and median would tell a truer story than average here.

The age number feels closer to right, though the trend line is what matters: Ken Ricci made this point at CJI a couple of years ago, and the average customer is getting younger and buying bigger. Between the wealth transfer and the wealth creation happening in AI and data centers, expect that age to keep drifting down. The good news underneath all the data noise is that the industry is growing, bonus depreciation is working, and scarcity is supporting values. Clear skies, but check the methodology before you quote the stats.

Read More: WealthBriefing

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The Scoop: Pipistrel, a Textron company and affiliate of Textron Aviation, unveiled the Voyager on July 20 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, days before the MOSAIC rule's aircraft certification provisions take effect on July 24. The two-seat trainer is built around a Rotax 912 ULS engine with a 1,389 pound max takeoff weight, 552 pounds of useful load, and 740 nautical miles of range including IFR reserves. It is designed for IFR training, certified for intentional spins, and carries an integral ballistic parachute, plus Garmin's new AXIS avionics with a single-lever throttle, three-axis autopilot, electronic stability protection, and haptic stall warning. The 2026 base price is 240,000 euros, roughly $273,000, which positions it at about half the price of a new Cessna 172, and Textron frames it as a complement to the Skyhawk rather than a replacement. Entry into service is expected in 2027, and Epic Flight Academy has reportedly signed on as launch customer with an agreement for up to 50 aircraft.

Our Take: This is exactly the kind of innovation we have been hoping MOSAIC would unlock. A modern, IFR-capable, spin-certified trainer at half the price of a 172 is a real shot at flight school fleet economics, and anything that brings the cost of training down matters when technicians and pilots are both in short supply.

Watch the used trainer market: a cheaper, modern two-seater arriving with lighter certification burden could put pressure on older 172 values and other legacy trainers. And remember, business aviation is not just jets; it often looks like a Bonanza or a 182 being used for business.

Read More: Textron

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The Scoop: The Associated Press analyzed flight logs, photos, and Instagram posts to track FIFA President Gianni Infantino's travel during the 2026 World Cup, and the numbers are staggering. Over the tournament, the Gulfstream G650 he used, from the Qatari government's fleet and operated by the private charter division of Qatar Airways, a World Cup sponsor, logged roughly 115 flight hours and 59,281 miles across 21 airports, enough to circle the globe almost two and a half times. The shortest hop was a 28-minute Seattle to Vancouver flight; the busiest single day covered 5,772 miles across three legs on June 26. Infantino saw at least one match at all 16 venues. The BBC separately estimated the environmental impact of a two-week stretch of the flying at roughly the annual carbon footprint of 78 people, and FIFA has pledged to cut World Cup related emissions 50 percent by 2030.

Our Take: This is basically a giant advertisement for business aviation. Same seat, kickoff to final whistle, at stadiums hundreds or thousands of miles apart, sometimes two matches a day. There is simply no version of that itinerary that works on commercial. A 28-minute hop timed around kickoff is exactly the point-to-point, time-compressed mission private aviation was built for, and flying a fractional-share-sized chunk of hours in six weeks proves the utilization case better than any brochure.

With a sponsor-provided jet and a carbon footprint drawing criticism, the offsets conversation writes itself.

Read More: Associated Press

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The Scoop: The Information reports that a new generation of AI and tech money is flooding into private aviation, and supply is straining to keep up. Wait times for new Bombardier and Gulfstream aircraft have reportedly stretched from about 18 months to two to three years, and Guardian Jet's Greg Sydor is cited saying used prices at the high end are up 15 percent approaching 20 percent. The piece profiles Bond, the ultra-premium fractional operator launched by Bill Papariella, which caps membership at roughly 100 people paying $1.1 million to $3.5 million per year, with about 30 percent of members reportedly coming from Silicon Valley AI companies, and Craft, whose exchange fund lets holders of concentrated tech stock swap equity into fund shares plus discounted jet access.

Preston Holland, co-host of the show and founder of Prestige Aircraft Finance, is quoted in the article, estimating tech buyers now make up roughly 40 percent of private jet demand, up from about 20 percent a decade ago. San Francisco reportedly saw the fastest private jet traffic growth of any top ten U.S. city in the first half of 2026, and hangar costs in the Bay Area and New York have climbed to as much as $60,000 a month for larger aircraft.

Our Take: First, a confession from the newly quoted: when a journalist asks you to think out loud, that is the quote they will run. The 20 percent to 40 percent estimate was gut feel and quick math, clearly labeled as such on the call, and it is the line that made the article. Consider this your PSA: we are commentators, not journalists, and when you talk to the press, do not think out loud.

Substance-wise, we think the article gets the big thing right: this is a supply problem, not a demand problem. Owners are not trading out and up, inventory constrains, and micro markets keep having their moments. The rising tide is bigger than the buyers, too. Early employees at these AI and space companies become liquid, and the first thing on the list is flying private: charter, fractional, or a whole airplane, and increasingly they skip the ladder entirely and jump straight into a large cabin.

The Craft exchange fund mechanic is novel and worth understanding, and if there is a fragility in all this, it is concentration: a market this dependent on one sector's boom deserves a seatbelt sign. For now, keep IPOing, keep selling companies, and keep flying private.

Read More: The Information (subscription required)

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When the Radio Becomes the Internet

We got tagged in a video this week (thanks to Derek Johnson from Mach One Aviation) of a pilot getting increasingly heated with air traffic control, ultimately threatening to declare an emergency because he was not getting what he wanted. We do not know the whole story, and it is not every pilot, but there is a small subsection of crew members out there who are a little too bossy on frequency, and it does not make the rest of our professional pilots look good.

The Inventory That Wasn't

Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/onacasella

Part madness, part PSA for anyone with inventory out there. We were sent a lifestyle influencer account on Instagram and Facebook holding itself out as controlling hard-to-find, large cabin inventory, requiring an LOI before disclosing any information, tail number, serial number, anything. The people who actually control that inventory reached out to us, and the wildest part is that a walk-around video sent to a very small group ended up on the account. The best protection if you are a buyer is buy-side representation with a really tight contract: someone who is a fiduciary to you, knows who actually holds what inventory, and cannot make money out of the back of the deal. Whatever you do, do not DM your way into sending an LOI, and definitely do not send a deposit, to an account you cannot verify. It is a recipe for disaster.

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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.