✈️ The VIP Seat Weekly

Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh

March 4th, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 9 Companion

We Recorded This One at 43,000 Feet

This is the first ever podcast (that we can find) done at altitude (43,000 feet), departing Memphis and spelling out "THE VIP SEAT" in the sky.

That was entirely our new show sponsor, AB Jets', idea, and it was a great one. If you want to track our route, look up N375AB.

Their new owned and operated Challenger 3500 is legitimately impressive. No headphones needed. Normal speaking volume. We FaceTime'd, texted, emailed, and pulled live news stories the entire flight thanks to Starlink. The global-style seating swivels 360 degrees and lays flat. The auto-throttle is so smooth that you genuinely cannot tell when the aircraft is banking.

AB Jets owns and operates their aircraft directly, which means no owner call-outs. They carry ARGUS Platinum, full crew certifications, and a proprietary road kit mounted under the aircraft with spare parts for faster dispatch. They are bringing three brand new Challenger 3500s into the fleet while continuing their well-established Lear 60 operation. The only other way to access supplemental lift at this level is through a fractional program. Getting it on demand is rare, and that is the point.

A huge thank you to the whole AB Jets team. This one will be hard to top. Learn more at Abjets.com

1. Embraer Announces the Praetor 500E and 600E… Cool Upgrades, But Was the Hype Warranted?

Embraer held a webinar to announce the Praetor 500E and 600E, and the industry spent the days leading up to it wondering if this was finally going to be the large cabin reveal everyone has been hoping for. It was not.

What was announced is genuinely nice: redesigned seats, slimmer overhead panels, a new cabin management system, an updated galley, and on the 600E, an optional "Smart Window" which is a 42-inch 4K OLED curved touchscreen integrated into the left side panel that serves as a cinema screen, gaming area, and virtual window via three external cameras.

What was not announced: extra range, meaningful mechanical changes, or a large cabin aircraft.

Our take: the upgrades are awesome and the Smart Window is a clever feature. But the buildup set expectations that the announcement might not have met. To put it plainly, this felt like a press release dressed up as an event. When Embraer launched the 300E, it came with substantial changes. The 500E and 600E feel more iterative.

One detail worth noting from the AIN coverage: someone claims that the Smart Window upgrade shifts The VIP Seat from the traditional left forward-facing position to the middle seat and the divan. If you have ever sat on a divan for an extended flight, you know that is a debatable trade-off. The real VIP seat… right side, facing forward, opposite the door… remains the gold standard.

Embraer is very good at marketing. Everyone was texting and calling about this announcement before it happened. If this was a tease for something bigger, the industry will be paying attention.

Read the full story from AIN →

2. FlyHouse Is Projecting $2.64 Billion in Revenue and Raising $300 Million

This one broke while we were in the air and Preston pulled it up live. FlyHouse, backed by Benevolent Capital, is raising up to $300 million at a $500 million pre-money valuation. Their previous Series B was raised at a $100 million pre-money valuation. They are projecting $420 million in revenue for 2026, over $900 million in 2027, and $2.64 billion by 2030 at a 30% net margin.

The model, as described in the investor materials: Uber for private jets on the consumer side (download the app, book a flight in a 30-second auction) and Airbnb for private jets on the operator side (list your aircraft, set your pricing, keep the majority of the booking). Funds from this raise are earmarked for fleet expansion to over 100 managed aircraft, app development, and new insurance and credit divisions. Heard that one before? We sure have… doesn’t exactly go over well with the aviation crowd.

One person with knowledge of FlyHouse's current financials told Private Jet Card Comparisons that hitting the 2026 revenue targets will likely require significant M&A activity, not just organic growth. Company leadership says they can get there on the current run rate. We’re not so sure…

Directly contradicting that “organic growth” has been recent actions by FlyHouse. They acquired Sun Air Jets (11 aircraft on their Part 135 certificate at the time) and JetSmith to build out their broker and B2B relationships. They also co-led a $50 million private placement in Patriot National Bank in March 2025.

A few things we kept coming back to:

Two sided marketplaces are really hard. You have to build supply and demand simultaneously, and it is one of the hardest problems in any business. JetSmarter had some success here largely because of empty legs, not just the platform itself.

Technology is no longer a moat. Building a slick app is easier than it used to be. The competitive advantage has to come from somewhere else… scale, cost structure, relationships, something.

Inside the industry, people are not always clear on exactly what FlyHouse does. For consumers, the Uber framing works fine. For operators and brokers, the messaging has been less consistent. Recent moves toward the broker community is a move in the right direction.

Benevolent Capital has indicated this is expected to be the last capital raise before either a public offering or a strategic exit in two to three years. The private aviation M&A market is extremely active right now, with over $3 billion in new financing announced across Flexjet, Vista Global, Wheels Up, and others since late 2024. Going public in that short of a timeline? Well… we’ll see.

Read the full story from Private Jet Card Comparisons →

3. Middle East Airspace Chaos and What It Means for Private Aviation

The ongoing conflict in the region has shut down a wide corridor of Middle East airspace. As of this writing, the skies over the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, and Iraq were nearly empty. Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways all suspended operations. Dubai International and Abu Dhabi's Zayed International Airport both sustained damage from strikes.

For private aviation specifically, this is both a challenge and a market opportunity depending on who you are and what you do. Operators experienced in emergency response and high-risk extractions have been active. Kyle Patel at Bitlux flew people out of Mexico one weekend and out of Iran the next. His ops team tracks fleet position in real time across conflict zones, which is exactly the capability you need when normal commercial options disappear.

He received some criticism for posting steep pricing publicly. That is a fair conversation to have, but it is also a risk premium and a supply-demand reality. Operators willing to fly into active conflict zones are taking on real exposure in handling costs, logistics, and in some cases physical risk. What looks like high pricing often reflects costs that are not visible. That said, there are some people out there gouging people. Beware.

For anyone considering travel to or through the region: check with your broker or operator, confirm routing options, and understand that ground handling in emergency zones can be unpredictable. The US State Department has issued a security alert advising US citizens to exercise caution. Multiple governments have advised citizens to avoid the region entirely.

Read the full story from CNN →

4. Starlink Sets a Speed Limit and GA Pilots are Not Happy

Starlink began notifying customers this week that Roam and Priority plans are now capped at 100 mph, effective immediately. Two new aviation-specific tiers were introduced: Aviation 300MPH at $250 per month, and Aviation 450MPH at $1,000 per month. Both include only 20 GB of data.

For context, many GA operators were previously running $50/month plans that included 100 GB. The math is not subtle.

For business aviation operators who have already invested $300,000 or more in a certified Starlink installation on a super-midsize or large cabin aircraft, the frustration runs in a different direction. When a turboprop or light jet operator can stick a Starlink Mini to their windshield and call it a "Starlink-enabled aircraft," it erodes the value proposition for everyone who made the significant upfront investment. Starlink appears to be addressing that with these speed-based tiers, which is a reasonable business decision even if the execution has been jarring.

The pricing structure now uses miles per hour as the tier cutoff, which means they are effectively sorting by aircraft type. Under 300 mph covers most piston aircraft and slower turboprops. Jessie’s Kodiak “The Beast,” for instance, likely will stay under that threshold. Above 300 mph catches turboprops and light jets. Above 450 mph is essentially everything else in business aviation.

For business aviation operators already on enterprise contracts, this week's changes are no news. The bigger story there is whether Starlink holds pricing discipline as it approaches a potential IPO. You juice the numbers before you go public. This feels like a piece of that.

Read the full story from AvBrief →

5. Guy Selling Fake Parts Sentenced to Prison

Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, director of AOG Technics, was sentenced in London to four years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud in the sale of aircraft engine parts with falsified documentation. His company supplied components for CFM56 engines, which power Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft, to airlines, maintenance organizations, and suppliers worldwide between 2019 and 2023. Roughly 60,000 suspect parts entered the global supply chain. Not all of them have been traced.

The scheme was not about manufacturing fake parts from scratch. Zamora Yrala was reportedly buying old, worn parts, refurbishing them, and then falsifying the documentation to pass them off as new. That is arguably more dangerous than a poorly-made counterfeit because the parts look and feel legitimate.

What makes this story particularly striking is how it unraveled. One astute A&P mechanic looked at a part, thought something seemed off, called GE or Safran to verify the serial number, and was told the part was not new. That one phone call unraveled a scheme that had been running for five years. The mechanic deserves recognition for that. And maybe even a bounty reward?

The affected airlines, which include American, Delta, Ethiopian, Ryanair, and others, faced significant costs in grounding aircraft, tracking parts, and completing replacements. The UK Serious Fraud Office noted that the conduct "risked public safety on a global scale."

The underlying issue is traceability. Without serial numbers on every individual part, especially nuts, bolts, and hardware, there is no clean audit trail. People have been pushing for better parts tracking for years. Blockchain-based solutions have been discussed in MRO circles. AI-powered scanning and database verification could help. What this case makes clear is that the status quo leaves a real vulnerability in the supply chain.

This was technically a commercial aviation story as the CFM56 is not a business aviation engine (minus the occasional BBJ or ACJ), but the lesson applies across the industry. Proper documentation and verification of parts provenance matters everywhere.

Read the full story from AVweb →

🔥 Mile High Madness

This week, instead of our usual social media roundup, we are asking you to do something for us.

We recorded a podcast live at 43,000 feet, spelled out "THE VIP SEAT" in the sky over Memphis, and did it all in AB Jet's’ brand new Challenger 3500 with Starlink running the whole time. That is a first for any podcast, ever, and we want to get the word out.

So send this to your industry friends. Send it to charter operators, charter brokers, aircraft financiers, whole aircraft brokers, pilots, heads of flight departments, and anyone else who you think should know this show exists. If you want to give us a shout out on LinkedIn, that would be even better. Give us a 5 star review on Apple or Spotify while you’re sharing!

This show only grows because you help us grow it. Thank you for being part of it.

🎧 This Week's Episode

Missed the podcast? Catch up on the full episode at the links below! We would LOVE if you would give us a 5 star review, and share with your friends!

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Website 

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