Flight Options a fractional ownership operator has a new owner: Miami-based HIG Capital.  The company is planning on growing via ordering jets from Embraer that could total more than 10 in the next 10 years.

Flight Options is the second largest fractional operator behind NetJets.  their previous owners are the aircraft manufacturer Raytheon.  The deal should be done by the end of the year. Q3 2007 was the first quarter the company has made a profit, which is a challenge amongst all the fractioanl operators.  The company has been in business for ten years. 

“Over this period we have moved from being a company that lost 18¢ in every dollar to turning an operating profit and one that offered 13 fleet types with 23 different cockpit to four fleet types and four cockpits - Hawker 400XP, 850XP/900XP, Cessna Citation X and [Embraer] Legacy 600,” says Flight Options chief executive Michael Scheeringa.

“Our new owners share with us the same view about how we are going to grow,” he says. “We now have the best economic platform from which to develop and launch new products and grow Flight Options well in to the next decade.”

Flight Options will get into the on demand charter game on 12 November.  Without many details the company indicates it will offer a “one-stop shop” for current fractional or charter card customers.

Flight Options has 1400 shareowners that co-own the fleet of 130 aircraft.  Flight Options also recently started offering a business aircraft management program.  this will evidently compete with other operators looking to manage business aircraft.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Private Jets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.