It became apparent late last year that the management team led by chairman and CEO Kenn Ricci would be unable to raise the investment capital needed to continue fractional provider Flight Options in its then form. John Nahill, Raytheon Co. vice president of corporate strategy and development and a member of the Flight Options board of directors since the company’s merger with Raytheon Travel Air in March last year, spent virtually the entire month of January this year at Flight Options’ headquarters in Cleveland, where he went over the books and held conversations with customers, vendors, employees and management.
On February 10 the company announced that Nahill, 38, had been appointed chairman and CEO. “The employees and management of Flight Options are to be commended,” he said at the time. “In four short years, they took this business from a $30 million company to more than $700 million in sales.” In June, the company announced that it had completed a financial recapitalization agreement with Raytheon Co., giving Raytheon approximately 65-percent interest in Flight Options LLC, where before it had held 49.9 percent.
