Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

July 15th, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 27 Companion

Good morning and welcome back to the VIP Seat. This week we are covering Starlink doubling its business aviation prices, the FAA's proposed federal standard for crew breaks, a new White House proclamation on aerospace imports, a legal battle over an alleged incident on a private jet, the NBAA's warning on AI-powered cybertheft, and Embraer's brand new Phenom 300EV. Sit back, buckle up, and let's take off.

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The Scoop: SpaceX notified customers on July 7 that it is doubling the cost of its Starlink business aviation connectivity plans effective August 7, and adding regional boundaries that limit coverage to a chosen continent, according to Corporate Jet Investor. The old $10,000 per month unlimited plan has been replaced by the Aviation Global Unlimited package starting at $20,000 per month, with download speeds up to 1 Gbps on a Starlink performance antenna or 500 Mbps on earlier generation hardware. The entry level plan jumped from $2,000 to $4,000 per month for 25GB of data and speeds up to 250 Mbps, and a new middle tier, Aviation Regional Unlimited, sits at $12,500 per month with unlimited data and 500 Mbps within a single continental region. Regional coverage extends over land, territorial waters, and within 12 nautical miles of the coast. SpaceX also raised the price of Starlink Aviation hardware for business jets to $200,000, up from $145,000 last year.

Our Take: We have heard this called Elonomics: get everyone hooked on the supply, then raise the price. Starlink is an incredibly sticky product, principals want it, and backlogs are huge, so SpaceX is now testing just how serious operators are. For the buyer of a brand new G600 spending millions a year on operations, this is a pill you swallow. Where it really stings is the older large cabin charter fleet flying international. On a G-V or GIV-SP you can buy for a few million dollars, a $240,000 annual connectivity bill starts approaching 10 percent of the airplane's value every year.

The regional boundaries also feel like they were not fully thought through for how this industry actually flies. A Part 135 operator with five Challenger 350s pointed out flying only North America, where the regional plan should fit perfectly, except Miami to LA crosses the Gulf well beyond 12 nautical miles and Hawaii is a domestic destination that requires the global plan. The silver lining: Gogo's Galileo now has a clear lane as the roughly $10,000 per month unlimited alternative, and the decision between the two just became more interesting.

Read More: Corporate Jet Investor

The Scoop: The FAA published a proposed rule on July 6 that would make federal aviation regulations the exclusive standard for flightcrew member and flight attendant duty, rest, and meal break requirements, explicitly preempting state and local laws on the same subject. The proposal would add new sections 117.31 for flightcrew members and 121.468 for flight attendants.

The move follows years of litigation, including Bernstein v. Virgin America, where the 9th Circuit held in 2021 that California's meal and rest break requirements were not preempted by federal aviation law, a decision the Supreme Court declined to review in 2022. The proposal applies to Part 121 operators, and comments are due September 4.

Our Take: Anyone who has employed crews based in California knows this frustration firsthand. State meal and rest break laws designed for desk jobs get very complicated when applied to pilots and flight attendants who already operate under federally mandated rest and duty rules, and who in the pilots' case are often making several hundred thousand dollars a year. Is it intra-California flights, crews based in California, or flights that touch California? It is where the person is employed, and that is why some operators quietly avoid hiring California-based crews altogether.

This feels like a preemption fight headed for higher courts if California pushes back. The bigger question for bizav: this proposal covers Part 121 only. We would love to see the industry's lobbying groups make the case for Part 135 too, because a small charter operator has far less administrative machinery to manage state by state compliance than an airline does.

Read More: AVweb

The Scoop: A presidential proclamation scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on July 15 addresses imports of commercial aircraft, jet engines, and aircraft and engine parts. It follows a Section 232 investigation in which the Commerce Secretary found that such imports threaten to impair national security, citing overreliance on foreign supply chains and risks from non-compliant and counterfeit components that have led to aircraft removals from service and compromised engines. Notably, the Secretary recommended that no immediate tariffs be imposed. Instead, the proclamation directs the Commerce Secretary and the US Trade Representative to pursue negotiations with trading partners and report back within 180 days, while reserving the option of alternative remedies depending on how those negotiations go.

Our Take: We’re TALKING ABOUT TARIFFS AGAIN!

Reading the document, this appears aimed primarily at the commercial aviation supply chain, but the language around generic jet engine parts sweeps broadly. Maybe there’s a counterfeit parts angle, back to the fraudulent parts dealer story from a few months ago; there may be a legitimate authenticity and quality control concern underneath the trade language. That said, tariffs have historically been a hammer looking for a nail in this industry.

Who is exposed if this escalates? Pratt & Whitney if the issue is Canada, Airbus if it is France, Embraer if it is Brazil, and just about everyone if it is Mexico, with downstream effects rippling from there. Our read: not time to wave the tariff flag and panic, but absolutely something to keep on the radar over the next 180 days.

Read More: Federal Register

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The Scoop: A legal fight is underway between Matt Danzeisen, husband of billionaire Peter Thiel, and former flight attendant Stefanie Bojar. According to court filings reported by multiple outlets, Danzeisen sued Bojar in federal court in May, alleging she waged an extortion campaign and violated a confidentiality agreement, and characterizing the underlying incident as a soft bag that may have accidentally brushed her leg. Bojar filed a counterclaim on July 7 naming Danzeisen and Thiel Capital LLC, alleging she was shoved and struck by cooler bags before a July 2024 departure from Sun Valley, Idaho, resulting in a torn ankle tendon that required surgery. Danzeisen's attorney has publicly described the case as a shakedown, and Bojar's attorneys describe the original suit as an attempt to intimidate her. Bojar was reportedly employed by Solairus Aviation, which is not named as a defendant in the filings reported so far.

Our Take: These are allegations flying in both directions, and we genuinely do not know who is telling the truth here, so we will let the court sort out the facts. What caught our attention from an industry structure standpoint is that the management company was not named in the reported filings, and the claims target the principals directly. We are very much not attorneys, but workers' compensation frameworks typically limit certain categories of recovery against an employer, which may explain why the claims are aimed where they are. That is a dynamic worth understanding for anyone in the managed aircraft world.

The practical takeaway for crews and principals alike: cabins are small, galleys are crowded, and tempers plus tight spaces are a bad combination. We will be watching how this one plays out.

Read More: Page Six

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The Scoop: The NBAA's Business Aviation Insider published a July feature warning that AI is making cybercriminals faster, smarter, and harder to detect, and outlining how business aviation operators can recognize emerging threats and defend against sophisticated phishing attacks. The guidance focuses on protecting aircraft, data, and organizations as criminals use AI tools to impersonate executives, clone voices, and craft increasingly convincing fraudulent messages targeting high-value aviation transactions.

Our Take: Cybercriminals have always circled private aviation because we do massive, complicated deals with wires flying between escrow companies, lenders, and buyers. What has changed is that the old verification playbook is breaking down. A voice on the phone used to be a reasonable second factor for confirming routing numbers; now a principal's or CFO's voice can be cloned, so even the verbal callback can be spoofed. We think the answer is layered verification: known contacts, authentication tokens, and at least two independent confirmations before anything moves when millions of dollars are on the line.

And it is not just the big transactions. Charter companies get targeted too, right down to the classic gift card scam aimed at the new flight ops hire who gets an urgent message from the boss. Train your team, because nothing is common sense anymore in this environment. We also see a real opening here for entrepreneurs building transaction integrity tools purpose-built for aviation closings. If you are working on that, our inbox is open.

Read More: NBAA

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The Scoop: Embraer announced the Phenom 300EV on Tuesday, the next evolution of the best-selling light jet, with a list price of $13,995,000 and first deliveries expected in 2028. The headline feature is Garmin Emergency Autoland, making the 300EV the largest business jet equipped with the system, alongside class-exclusive autobrake and a new Embraer-developed Multi-Purpose Electronic Controller that integrates rudder-by-wire and other electronically controlled functions. Range increases to 2,055 nautical miles with roughly 430 pounds of additional payload capacity, and the cabin gains a vacuum lavatory, improved temperature control, and line-fit low Earth orbit connectivity via Gogo Galileo, with Starlink reportedly available aftermarket through a supplemental type certificate. According to reporting, existing Phenom 300Es cannot be upgraded to the EV configuration, and certification from ANAC, FAA, and EASA is expected later this year.

Our Take: It has been a long time coming; the 300E arrived back in 2017, so the first big upgrade in nearly a decade. Autoland is the story here, and we cannot wait to see it proliferate across more airframes, because a one-button safety net for pilot incapacitation is amazing. It is especially meaningful for the owner-flown crowd, where the Phenom 300 is the last stop on the single-pilot ladder that runs from the Cessna 172/Cirrus SR20. Reduced workload plus Autoland makes single-pilot ops that much more approachable.

Two threads worth pulling.

First, the LEO connectivity choice is interesting timing given the Starlink price news above, and it sounds a bit like AirShare's Galileo decision on its 300 fleet.

Second, pay attention to deposits: with deliveries stretching out years, the opportunity cost of a large deposit sitting with the OEM is real money, and progress payment financing gets more attractive. The Phenom keeps pulling away from the CJ4 on technology, so the ball is in Textron's court for a big answer.

Read More: Corporate Jet Investor

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Horse of the Year, Airlifted Division

Business aviation does amazing things for the world, and this week's proof is a horse airlifted by helicopter out of a ravine in Andorra after being injured and unable to climb out. Was he scared? Almost certainly. Was his life saved by a helicopter crew who knew exactly what they were doing? Also yes. Good on you, little fella. This follows a search and rescue dog in Thailand who was lifted by drone and looked completely unbothered, so apparently composure at altitude varies by species.

That Valuation Number Cannot Be Right

A social media post circulated this week claiming an acquisition of Worldwide Jet and Carlisle Air Group at a reported $600 million valuation. The acquisitions themselves appear to be real, but we have yet to see an official press release, and nobody seems to know where that valuation figure came from. Having sold a fleet of fifteen owned and operated airplanes ourselves, we can tell you that number does not pass the sniff test. Our guess is there may be one too many zeros in that post. If anyone involved in the deal wants to come on the show and talk real numbers, our door is open.

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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.