Charter broker ONEflight, which specializes in pre-selling lift through jet cards and other mechanisms, has paused activity “for the next 30 days, or until further notice,” the company said in a note on its website. This pause will continue, the note added, “while we conduct a comprehensive evaluation of our current operations and status.”
ONEflight gained notoriety with a series of YouTube videos in which celebrities, including NFL legend John Elway and Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank fame, touted the broker’s BAJit service, which claimed access to 7,000 aircraft operated by 700 charter providers. In the Elway and Herjavec videos, the celebrities come to the rescue of charter customers who have been abandoned by their provider and show the customers how to use the BAJit app to find a timely replacement flight. Seven months ago, ONEflight and McLaren Formula 1 Team announced a “multi-year global partnership” that made ONEflight the team’s “Official Private Aviation Partner.”
Charter operator LAC Aero posted recently on LinkedIn that: “We are both saddened and shocked to learn that ONEflight is closing its doors.” LAC Aero provided charter flights for ONEflight customers. “Having worked closely with their flight broker team for many years, we have come to know and respect many of their employees, and our hearts go out to them in this uncertain time in the aviation world,” the LAC Aero post said. “LAC Aero would be honored to assist you with your future charter needs.”
Steve Simard, founder and CEO of charter broker Cypress Jet, also offered to help ONEflight customers. “I want you to know that help is available and you have options,” he wrote. “This is not the first signal from this company in recent weeks. In August they implemented a 35% surcharge on existing members. Then reversed it after backlash. Then reports surfaced of internal financial and operational issues. Now a 30-day flight pause.
“I am not sharing this to pile on a company that is struggling. I am sharing it because there are real people—real clients—who funded accounts in good faith and now cannot fly for a month. That is not acceptable. And they deserve to know there are alternatives.”
According to Private Jet Card Comparisons (PJCC), in an update on the ONEflight situation published September 16, ONEflight earned $232 million in revenue last year. “Based on sales volume, over $150 million in prepaid flights could be at stake. In a bankruptcy, clients with prepaid charter and jet card flights are unsecured creditors.”
PJCC went on to explain that “Last week, a ONEflight vice president emailed employees to address financial issues. V-p of human resources Ruby Dalton wrote that CEO Ferren Rajput was ‘actively addressing the financial and operations issues that developed under the previous CFO’s leadership and is taking the necessary steps to strengthen ONEflight’s financial position and long-term stability.’”
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