Episode summary
This Company Lets You Use a Private Jet for $10,000 Per Hour | At Barron's
At Barron's
· · Hosts: Andy Serwer · Guests: Thomas Flohr
Summary
Vista Global is built around a simple pitch: instead of owning a jet or buying a share of one, clients buy access to a standardized fleet by the hour. Thomas Flohr said he started the company after finding private aviation too unpredictable, and he designed Vista around identical aircraft, a freely floating global fleet, and a subscription model that tailors hours to a customer’s actual travel pattern. He said the company now has about 230 aircraft, mostly Bombardier super-midsize and ultra-long-range jets, and that its network covers all five continents.
Flohr argued that the model is more efficient and often cheaper than fractional ownership because utilization is higher and clients avoid the capital and operating burdens of owning an airplane. He said pricing is typically a fixed hourly rate, roughly $10,000 to $25,000 per hour, with security and route planning handled case by case. He also said about 80% of demand is corporate, and that Vista is cash flow positive even if it is not profitable on a GAAP net income basis.
On business conditions, Flohr said Vista is still growing, taking share, and generating about $3 billion of revenue. He said America is now the company’s biggest market, while the Middle East and emerging markets are key growth areas, including Saudi Arabia, where Vista recently won its first internal flying license.
Key takeaways
- Thomas Flohr said Vista’s model is a tailored hourly subscription, not fractional ownership, because customers buy only the flight hours they need.
- Flohr said Vista has about 230 aircraft and operates a freely floating global fleet across five continents.
- Flohr said pricing is typically about $10,000 to $25,000 an hour, with the same hourly rate on domestic and international trips aside from some extra charges.
- Flohr said Vista is about 80% corporate customers and roughly cash flow positive, despite GAAP net income losses tied to depreciation accounting.
- Flohr said America now represents half of revenue, while the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and other emerging markets are major growth drivers.
Notable quotes
“why don't we build a fleet of absolutely identical airplanes all around the world and give clients access to it with a simple subscription program”
“So today we have about 230 aircraft”
“no company covers the globe like we do on all five continents”
“it could be, of course, first of all, it's different paragraph type, size, etc. But I think as a rule of thumb, it's probably somewhere between$10,000 and $25,000 an hour”
“the company is absolutely cash flow positive”
How the episode opens
Hello everyone and welcome to At Barrens. I'm Andy Sir and welcome to our guest Thomas Flor who is the chairman and founder of Vista. Thomas, great to see you. — Great to see you. Happy to be here.
So I want to ask you about your company of course which is the owner of Vista Jet. Tell us about Vista Jet and the various other businesses that you have. Well, look, I got into business aviation really by being a quite frustrated client of this industry and that was about 21 years ago.
And uh what I saw was it was actually either a random charter opportunity where you wouldn't know what you get until you arrive at the airport and or otherwise you had to buy a full airplane or a fraction of an airplane. And all that kind of like wasn't intuitively making sense to me. you just wanted to fly, but I wanted to make sure that I get exactly what I know and what I understand as a product.
And think about any other industry, right? Any hotel industry at the very top end, the presidential suite. I mean, you're making a decision for 10, 15,000.
And you would make absolutely sure that you know what you're getting and the quality of the product and so on and so forth. In this industry, unless you owned a full airplane, you wouldn't know what you get. And that didn't make any sense to me.
And you're selling to the wealthiest and most influential people. So that's what Vista came about. And I said, "Okay, why don't we build a fleet of absolutely identical airplanes all around the world and give clients access to it with a simple subscription program?"
Right. And so what kind of jets do you fly and how many aircraft do you have at this point, Tom?
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private aviation model
- pricing per hour
- company growth
- market headwinds
- private jet leasing
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Vista Global
Watch the episode
Watch “This Company Lets You Use a Private Jet for $10,000 Per Hour | At Barron's” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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