The VIP Seat: Private Aviation News

Trump is taking aim at Bombardier again—threatening to stop the Canadian manufacturer from selling aircraft in the United States unless it builds more of them on U.S. soil. But is this a real policy move, another tariff negotiating tactic, or both? And what could it mean for Global and Challenger buyers, fractional operators, delivery customers, and the wider business-aviation supply chain?

This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie and Preston break down:

Trump’s latest Bombardier threat and why calling it an enacted “tariff” may be premature
Bombardier’s U.S. manufacturing footprint, including Global 7500 wing production in Texas
Grant Cardone’s $80 million, “no tariffs” Global 7500 sales pitch
Honda Aircraft subsidiary Arulean Air’s minority investment in Thrive Aviation
Thrive’s new fractional program featuring HondaJet HA-420s and Challenger 3500s
Whether a disciplined VLJ fractional model can actually work—and why the charter/fractional balance matters
Bernie Ecclestone reportedly being detained in Portugal after a shotgun was found aboard his private jet
The international-trip lesson: firearms, permits, customs, crew coordination, and why “last-minute” does not mean “skip the paperwork”
Treasury declining senators’ request to change SIFL valuation rules for personal use of employer-provided aircraft
Why politicians can potentially be subject to SIFL too—but campaign flights, government flights, and personal fringe-benefit flights are not the same thing
L.A. County’s push to assess property taxes on aircraft tied to celebrities, billionaires, and high-net-worth owners
What aircraft situs-tax enforcement could mean for owners, management companies, and privacy

Private aviation remains an easy political target, but the real-world issues are more complicated: U.S. manufacturing jobs, cross-border supply chains, fleet planning, tax compliance, aircraft location records, and the practical need for private aviation as a business tool.

This episode is commentary, not legal, tax, customs, firearms, or operational advice. Consult qualified advisers, your operator, and trip-support professionals for guidance on a specific transaction or trip.

Thanks to this week’s sponsors:
AB Jets — for Starlink-equipped Challenger 3500 charter and supplemental lift.
RealJet — for experienced, human-led international trip support and operational coordination.

Subscribe to The VIP Seat, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and sign up for the newsletter at The VIP Seat.

#PrivateAviation #BusinessAviation #Bombardier #TrumpTariffs #HondaJet #Challenger3500 #FractionalOwnership #SIFL #PrivateJetTax #AviationNews

Vista Global is reportedly eyeing a European IPO that could raise over $1 billion at a valuation north of $10 billion, and Jessie and Preston break down what that means against a $600 million RRJ Capital investment, looming 2027 debt, and how Vista's 2025 flight hours stack up against NetJets and Flexjet. From there, Apollo's new stake in Atlantic Aviation values the FBO chain at nearly $10 billion, just five years after KKR bought it from Macquarie for $4.475 billion, and the hosts connect that to a Senate letter pressing the FAA on private equity's growing role in aviation maintenance and consolidation. Then it's OneFlight International's wild same-day 35% jet card surcharge and reversal, set against its McLaren F1 and PGA Tour sponsorships, and a debate over whether flashy marketing can outrun shaky pricing. Pentastar Aviation's new autonomous wing-walking robots from Airtrek Robotics, built to cut into the $100-150 million a year the industry loses to hangar rash. Plus, we're joined by special guest Chad Gilson from Gilchrest Aviation Law to break down recent updates to Beneficial Ownership Information and it's impacts on business aircraft privacy.

Subscribe to our email newsletter companion to read even more: www.thevipseat.com

Every general aviation airport in America is owned by a city or a county, and almost none of them can afford to build you a hangar. That is not a market failure. That is the system working exactly as it was designed.
This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie and Preston sit down with Tal Kenan, Founder and CEO of Sky Harbour, the publicly traded company building hangar campuses at airports where almost nobody can get land.
Tal grew up in military aviation, spent a decade running an investment firm between Tel Aviv and New York, then bought a Beech Baron and ran head first into the same hangar shortage everyone complains about. Instead of joining the waitlist, he went and read the FAA grant assurance guidelines. What came out of that is a real estate business that takes no transient traffic, charges a serious premium, and has a waiting list at most of its campuses.
They cover:
• Why the hangar shortage is a policy artifact, not a supply and demand accident
• How FBO economics quietly guarantee more ramp and less hangar space
• What it actually takes to win a ground lease on an airport, and why PDK took six years
• Why fuel and hangar have to be priced as a single number, not two
• How tax exempt private activity bonds fixed at 4.18% underpin the entire model
• Where the bond market and the equity market disagree about what this business is worth
• What a "home base operator" is, and why the FBO world is splitting in two
• The SPAC story, the REIT question, and why he is happy being public about five days out of seven
Supply is fixed, the fleet keeps getting bigger, and nobody is building new airports. This is the conversation about what happens next.
Thanks to AB Jets and Real Jet for sponsoring this season of The VIP Seat.

Subscribe to the newsletter at thevipseat.com

Jessie Naor: flyingprivate.org | flyvizor.com
Preston Holland: prestigefinance.com | prestonholland.com

Disclosure: Sky Harbour is a publicly traded company. Jessie Naor has a small personal investment in it, which she discloses on the show. Nothing in this episode is investment advice and should be viewed for entertainment purposes only.

flyExclusive reported a $111 million Q2, but behind the headline are improving margins, positive adjusted EBITDA, a complicated capital structure, and a $5 million loan carrying a stated 26.5% rate.

This week on The VIP Seat, Jessie Naor and Preston Holland break down flyExclusive’s Q2 2026 results: revenue growth, gross-margin improvement, fractional-program revenue, MRO, Jet Club activity, debt, and the related-party disclosures investors should read carefully. This is industry commentary only: not investment or financial advice.

Also in this episode:
SC Aviation acquires Heartland Aviation in Wisconsin
Atlantic introduces its Ascend operator savings program
LA County’s use of aircraft-tracking data in property-tax assessments
An Indiana farmer charged after allegedly shooting at a crop-dusting aircraft
Hera Flight’s reported Gulfstream G-IV runway-excursion and gear-collapse event
The Atlanta Plane Train runway carpet is apparently installed backwards
Aviation social-media nonsense, a $40 million “detailer” sale, and more

Thanks to this week’s sponsors, AB Jets and RealJet.

Subscribe for weekly private aviation news, aircraft-operations analysis, charter and fractional-market commentary, FBO economics, aviation finance, M&A, and business-aviation stories you will not find in a standard press release.

#PrivateAviation #BusinessAviation #flyExclusive #FLYX #PrivateJet #AviationNews #JetCharter #FractionalOwnership #FBO #AircraftManagement

Is Wheels Up finally building momentum—or simply burning more runway? We break down their latest financial release (not financial advice!).

This week, we battle it out over the Wheels Up Q2 results. The fleet transition is done early, the premium operation is more reliable, and management has put a 70-plus-hour utility target on the board. But cash burn, debt, deferred revenue and Delta support remain the real pressure points.

We also break down Solairus and Clay Lacy's deal, NetJets’ jet-card pause, Chris Rocheleau’s return to NBAA, Real Jet's Crytpo.com news, FAA cannabis research, and a little AI-slop-induced madness.