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Press releases announcing partnerships between private jet companies with celebrity chefs and star athletes, new private jet charter booking apps, and the like are still coming fast and furious. However, the more interesting trend being noticed by those in the know is the increase in press announcements with a very unsexy three-letter word. Okay, it’s not a word per se. It’s an acronym. MRO is short for maintenance, repairs, and overhauls.
MROs have always been critical for private jet operators. Airplanes need regular maintenance, both scheduled and unscheduled. Increasingly, maintenance is a PR talking point for private jet companies.
While it may not seem as cool as that new concierge partnership to secure your reservations at that three-star Michelin restaurant, the bigger spotlight on the folks who turn the wrenches more accurately reflects why private jet travel is now exceeding record levels from the COVID period.
Flying private is about saving time. Over 90% of private aviation users who responded to an annual survey by Private Jet Card Comparisons cited it as the reason they spend money to fly privately.
They articulated time savings in various ways, from door-to-door time savings compared to the airlines, to saving time at the airport, being able to fly nonstop instead of making a connection, the ability to use more convenient airports, airline schedules that don’t fit their schedules, and even replacing a long drive in the car.
Of course, if your private jet is waiting to be repaired and your flight is delayed, the cost of private air travel becomes less valuable.
Andy Nixon, co-founder of Alpha Wingman, has built a business on the time sensitivity of quickly fixing private jets for charter and fractional jet fleet operators.
Alpha Wingman is an online platform targeting the AOG segment, short for aircraft on the ground. That means the airplane has a mechanical problem while it is away from its base. The longer it takes to get mechanics and parts to the grounded jet, the more revenue the operator is losing, and for fractional ownership and jet card companies that guarantee flights, they often incur the cost of chartering a replacement aircraft to fulfill customer flights.
However, Nixon says operators are investing in both AOG support and more maintenance facilities and hubs. He says the trend to investing in more of their own maintenance facilities is because third-party MROs often don’t have available slots.
Nixon recalls one of the largest charter operators in the U.S. telling him the wait to get a slot at a third-party MRO was 14 days. He says the direct hit to the bottom line from having that aircraft out of service was around $15,000 per day, before factoring in repair costs. MROs were the top selection in a 2023 JetNetIQ survey asking where industry respondents would invest if they had a spare $500 million.
Going back to 2022, when it announced a private lounge in Scottsdale, NetJets said the overall development would also help ensure its inventory of more than 750,000 parts would be closer to the airplanes that needed them.
Executive Vice President Bradley Ferrell said at the time, “Our ongoing investment in expanding our real estate portfolio will continue to improve our industry-leading service, owner experience, and maintenance abilities.” He said it was the “first from-the-ground-up NetJets Maintenance Service Hub site” and was part of a “larger investment in dedicated facilities across the globe.”
In a December 2023 podcast with Aviation Week, Flexjet, Inc. CEO Andrew Collins told listeners, “Rather than buying flying companies and trying to solve for temporary capacity issues that were happening, we doubled down thinking about the back of the house and how to make sure we were supporting our customers.” He said 1,000 of the company’s approximately 4,000 employees back then were maintenance, completion, and supply chain specialists.
Filings from a recently settled lawsuit by Flexjet against Honeywell over delays in repairing engines revealed that the private jet operator was spending $30,000 per day for each of its jets out of service to charter replacement airplanes to meet the flight guarantees for its customers. At different times, Flexjet said dozens of its jets were grounded while awaiting engine repairs or replacements under a maintenance services agreement. Honeywell agreed to over $1 billion in cash and credits to settle the lawsuit.
FlyExclusive, which had already been focused on in-house maintenance at its Kinston, North Carolina base, issued a press release last December announcing it would double its mobile AOG units. The company said, “Each unit includes a dedicated truck outfitted with specialized tooling, diagnostic equipment, parts inventory, and newly added maintenance staffing — representing a substantial capital and operational investment designed to accelerate return-to-service performance.” Chairman Jim Segrave said, “Our customers expect to depart when their trips are scheduled, and our ability to deliver the experience they expect is driven directly by how rapidly we can return aircraft to service.”
FlyHouse, a private equity-backed 2021 start-up with splashy plans to revolutionize online charter jet booking while taking over some of Wheels Up’s high-profile football sponsorships, explicitly spotlighted maintenance in a recent acquisition. “The addition of Sun Air Jets’ certified maintenance and repair station provides FlyHouse with in-house maintenance, repair, and overhaul capabilities, enabling direct oversight of inspection, maintenance, and component work,” the company said.
Elevate Aviation Group, which is also launching an instant booking app and is best known for its work with sports teams and live entertainment on charter flights through its Private Jet Services brand, announced last November that it was expanding its in-house engine overhaul capabilities. In 2024, it opened a 17,000-square-foot facility in Denver to expand its MRO support for aircraft it manages for owners.
PlaneSense, a large fractional operator, tripled the size of its Boulder City, Nevada, maintenance facility, which opened in 2021.
Slate Aviation, after taking over the east coast shuttles operated by Vista’s XO last year, added an 80,000-square-foot facility in Georgia to support the maintenance needs of its Challenger 850 fleet.
In addition to AOG trucks, Nicholas Air has a Cessna Caravan to get technicians and parts to aircraft that need maintenance on short notice, away from base.
Alpha Wingman’s Nixon says operators also see an opportunity to offset some of the maintenance investment costs by taking on outside clients when not working on their own fleets. Some also see it as a stand-alone business line. Fly Alliance recently announced it received approval to perform maintenance in India.
Wheels Up, which struggled with on-time performance after buying six operators early in this decade, more recently, with Delta Air Lines’ backing, opened a central operations center in Atlanta and deploys its own mobile AOG units. It started in 2026 with a record streak – 14 straight days without a cancellation.
If you are worried, you may have to read more stories about maintenance, don’t worry. Last week, Wheels Up announced Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza as an ambassador. It also issued a press release to unveil new in-flight menus curated by celebrity chef Robert Irvine.
