Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

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Matt Thurber

Aviation insurance underwriter Class A Insurance and the Citation Jet Pilots Association (CJP) are collaborating on a program that rewards CJP members for participating in the association’s safety programs. Class A unveiled the program today at the CJP Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
The target market for Class A is owner-flown turbine aircraft, including single- and twin-engine turboprops and jets. Launched in January, the company is taking a data-driven approach to evaluating risk when providing coverage and will provide ongoing risk-mitigation assistance through its Virtual Flight Department service. Unlike traditional insurance underwriters, Class A will evaluate a significant amount of data on behalf of its customers and use that to inform underwriting decisions.
Under the partnership, Class A is offering new members free CJP membership; tailored insurance with enhanced coverage for CJP Gold Standard participants; a “bursary” to help pay for members to participate in the CJP-FOQA program; and access to the Class A Virtual Flight Department and Tailored Training Options, which provide “continuous risk assessment, proactive safety alerts, and pilot-focused training,” according to Class A.
“From the moment we engaged with the Citation Jet Pilots Association, we were struck by their deep and genuine commitment to safety,” said Mark Haidar, founder and CEO of Class A Insurance. “At Class A, our philosophy is centered on empowering pilots with technology, training, and proactive support that make safer skies possible. By aligning with CJP, we can reward safety-minded pilots with tangible benefits and the confidence they deserve.”
Haidar owns and flies an Embraer Phenom 300, Cirrus SR22, and Bell 505. He created Class A because he was frustrated with the process of getting insurance coverage. The biggest innovation in the insurance industry in recent years, he explained, was the move from fax machines to emails. Obtaining coverage still requires contacting a broker, filling out and submitting forms, waiting for the broker to submit those to underwriters, waiting for the broker and underwriters to negotiate, then binding the policy, and weeks later, the formal policy arrives in the mail. “It takes two months,” he said. “We can do it in seconds.”
There were no suitable software stacks available that met Class A’s need to evaluate all the data surrounding a particular pilot and aircraft and to make a rapid underwriting decision, so Class A developed its software in-house. This includes an app that contains a full copy of the policy and allows pilots to make a claim, not unlike modern automobile insurance apps. Being aviation-focused, the Class A app also includes preflight risk analysis and postflight analysis of the flight.
The collaboration with CJP was to recognize the members’ dedication to safety. CJP members have an outstanding safety record. “We wanted to do this with CJP to make a statement that we support safety behavior,” Haidar said.
The cost of Class A coverage will be competitive, he explained, but it will not be the cheapest insurance. “We’re looking for the safest pilots and will give them the best price,” he said. There will be no focus on pilot age as a key criterion for coverage because the data that Class A gathers will support underwriting decisions based not only on&nbsp;the pilot’s past experience but also on how they are currently flying.
Information that Class A gathers will be extensive and will include flight data from the avionics, ADS-B data, weather, notams, pireps, and even air traffic control communications. “This is just the start,” Haidar said.
The idea is to help Class A determine whether a pilot is truly a good pilot or just lucky at avoiding an accident. “The way we look at risk is contextual,” he explained. For example, a pilot may be qualified to fly to a mountain airport in snowy conditions despite having never done that before. Data will show that this is a higher-risk operation and that this pilot may require more training before conducting that flight.
If the data show that a pilot recently had a high sink-rate event during landing, that will likely not be a red flag, but a pilot who consistently shows a high sink rate when landing at multiple airports demonstrates a pattern of behavior that might make them a poor candidate for insurance coverage. “Do we see a pattern?” he asked. “Based on the patterns, we would make a judgment.”
Class A customers will have access to the Virtual Flight Department, which will help pilots with decision-making and provide support, including flight risk assessments. “Pilots don’t have to fly alone anymore,” Haidar said. “We’re the first insurance company to do that.” An example of this is that if Class A sees that a planned flight has high-risk elements, it will notify the pilot with a text message. This isn’t telling the pilot not to fly, however. “Our job is to make the pilot more risk-aware,” he said. “They get to decide.”

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