During the past year national charter brokerage firm Sentient Jet grew by 30 percent in revenue and charter leg spaces sold, according to Marty Guinoo, CEO. Last year, he said, the overall charter market was flat or grew slightly, by about 5 percent. “A lot of it has to do with the aircraft you operate,” he explained. “In our business we didn’t see the deterioration of large-cabin fliers. If you were flying Gulfstream Vs in 2007 and 2008, chances are you still have the wealth to fly a GV today. The deterioration we’ve witnessed has come from light and midsize jets.”
Charter remains extremely competitive and there is a lot of excess capacity available because aircraft owners who can’t afford to sell their jets are trying to earn charter revenue. But lately, Guinoo said, “we’ve seen some tightening [of capacity]. Flying has a lot to do with confidence, so it tracks the stock market. We’re ahead of the curve and we rebounded faster than the stock market has rebounded.”
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