Last month I wrote that Kenn Ricci was playing with fire when he floated an operator-only lobby on The VIP Seat. Here’s a deeper dive into the truths of what he described, even if I don’t agree with the remedy.
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The squeeze is real
At NBAA’s Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference in March, Ricci told the room that private equity was driving up costs at maintenance shops and FBOs, and that maintenance cycles were stretching because profit now ranks ahead of efficiency. Since then, Bain Capital moved to take majority control of parts distributor FDH Aero, adding it to a portfolio that already held APP Jet Center, ATG and a stake in MRO Holdings. Solairus agreed to buy Clay Lacy’s management and charter divisions and now runs a fleet north of 500 aircraft, and smaller roll-ups keep closing across the Midwest, leaving operators fewer places to take their business when the invoice climbs.
Listed turbine inventory sat at 5.8% of the active fleet at the end of June, the lowest reading since early 2024, and new aircraft supply looks constrained through 2027. An operator who needs to add lift this year should expect to pay close to asking price and wait for it.
NBAA’s Safety Committee found that 53% of respondents see pilot roles as the hardest hit by shortages, and 41% expect the safety picture to get worse. More flight departments are now filling seats with contract labor to stay staffed.
None of that is going away in the next year, so the question for every independent owner is how you plan to respond.
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How some owners have responded
Clay Lacy carved out its management and charter divisions and sold them to Solairus. In Wisconsin, Heartland Aviation’s owners sold to SC Aviation, and Heartland keeps its name and its team. SC Aviation took the other side of that trade, growing by acquisition with the backing of Colony Brands, the family company behind The Swiss Colony. flyExclusive went in a different direction, growing second-quarter revenue while flying 6% fewer aircraft.
Ricci’s own response is to own the parts of the experience his customers notice. His LVMH-backed investors told him to control the product and the distribution because luxury can’t be outsourced, so Flexjet has invested in its own maintenance and terminals.
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Setting up for a sale
Every roll-up in the news is also a buyer, and buyers pay more for an operation that keeps working after the founder walks away. That means documenting how the operation actually runs, so a buyer isn’t paying for the contents of your head, and keeping a team in place through the transition. Expect diligence to go straight to your training and maintenance records, since they are the proof that pilots were qualified and aircraft were airworthy.
Retention pays off before the sale too. Every pilot or mechanic who leaves gets replaced in a tight market, often with contract labor, and a buyer prices that churn into the offer.
The cheapest edge a small operator has is a mechanic who turns down the recruiter’s call.
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Setting up to scale
Scaling sits on the same foundation with more weight on it. Ricci built Flexjet on fixed-cost math, figuring a fractional program needed about 12 aircraft just to function and only turned real profit past a tipping point. Outside capital got him there, and culture kept the company together on the way up. Rebuilding enough trust with Flexjet pilots to decertify their union ran from 2012 to 2018, and the company still leans on weekly audio updates and an Instagram feed aimed mainly at its own employees and future hires.
For an owner who wants to be the acquirer, the hard part is personal. You can’t integrate a second operation while you’re still the one approving every crew schedule and vendor invoice. Whether you sell or scale, the owner has to stop being the company’s operating system, and most owners put that work off until a buyer or a crisis forces it.
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Fight it inside NBAA
Ricci’s grievances on source data, event fees, and aftermarket competition deserve a louder operator voice. I’d rather see that voice organized as an operator coalition inside NBAA, where the whole general aviation alliance carries the fight.
NBAA-BACE runs October 20 to 22 in Las Vegas, and the Flight Deck program covers workforce, regulation, and marketplace issues. Bring your actual maintenance turn times and fee increases and put them in front of NBAA staff. If the leadership side of this hits closer to home, the 2027 NBAA Leadership Conference, hosted by the Business Aviation Management Committee, is where owners work through it with peers facing the same pressure.
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Full disclosure: I serve as Vice Chair of NBAA’s Business Aviation Management Committee. The views here are my own.
Sources: The VIP Seat interview with Kenn Ricci; Doug Gollan’s write-up of Ricci’s SDC2026 keynote (Private Jet Card Comparisons); AIN; AVI-GO; GlobalAir; AMSTAT Q2 2026 data; NBAA Safety Committee. Watch the episode
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