The case of the Jet It company looks at a private aircraft sector business model and startup growth. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in June 2020, the joint founder and CEO of the firm decided to purchase additional aircraft to grow the company’s fleet considerably. This case study explores how a business can cope with this strategic increase in capacity in the face of significant market uncertainty. The assignment might be linked to a broader debate about the overall strategy of the company’s growth and the scalability of its business and operational model.
In the last two decades, the growth of private jet travel has increased considerably. In the face of lengthier security at commercial airports, over-crowded aircraft, and fewer direct flights connecting smaller cities, the rich are increasingly choosing to make private air travel to privatized airports. But a rising variety of choices, including fractional ownership and aircraft share, were another element boosting demand. It made the use of a private jet more affordable for smaller businesses.
Private commercial aircraft cover all air travel destined to carry passengers from different places outside regular airline flights. This eliminates the possibility of air travel, which people fly for pure pleasure. Private commercial aircraft encompass aircraft travel, spanning helicopters, single and twin-propeller aircraft, and planes. Private aviation businesses generally have contracts with services established at each airport, as commercial airlines with their ground forces; these are called fixed-base operators (FBOs) (Pisano et al., 2020, p. 5). Jet It company was established by Glenn Gonzales and Vishal Hiremath, who first met and became colleagues while working on Gulfstream sales support (Pisano et al., 2020, p. 6). Vishal, a training engineer, developed business; US Air Force Academy graduate Glenn was a sales protest captain. A few years later, the friends worked at Honda Aircraft as sales managers who started selling private jets. Glenn remembered how he and Vishal started pondering the concept of Jet It. The company operates on the principles of security, good customer reviews, and responsiveness. Fast access to aircraft (typically less than ten hours) was a potential Jet It differentiator. Jet It has impacted the private jet world and many major companies are now partnering with it and taking advantage of its fast flight technology.
The most rapidly increasing private aviation category was jet cards. A jet card user can typically utilize an app in less than ten hours to purchase an aircraft—however, assurances of availability are dependent on the program costs. Lower-cost schemes, such as Jettly’s, were generally unable to ensure accessibility. This idea was especially interesting to investigate and the technology for quickly ordering a private jet. Many did not realize that it is possible to quickly book a private jet through the subscription app even today. Jet Card companies might supply their fleet, third parties, or a mix of both of them with jet capacity. For example, Sentient solely has an external capability from a network of third-party aircraft owners for its 4000 jet card members (Pisano et al., 2020, p. 5). Larger operators such as NetJets and FlexJet used their own branded fleets solely on the other side of the range.
Jet It is innovative in its field, although it has offered a relatively simple alternative to flying in private jets. In the era of subscription apps, this solution has dramatically increased the demand from the company, as this option is very convenient for people. From the recommendations, the advice is not to stray from this course but only continue technological development and equip the infrastructure around the brand. This brand is impressed with its simple service when offering a private jet is not easy.
Reference
Pisano, G. P., Gibson, H., & Gilmore, N. (2020). Ready for take-off at Jet It. Harvard Business School Case 621–036, 1–16.