The large private jet operator became a public company today through its merger with EG Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:EGGF). The combined company now trades on the NYSE American under the symbol “FLYX”. It is projecting 2023 revenue of $323m and forecasts further significant growth in 2024.
Background
flyExclusive was founded in 2015 and in just over seven years has become one of the five largest private jet operators in North America, with triple digit membership growth, and a fleet of over 100 mainly Citation jets. Founder & CEO Jim Segrave sold his former private jet company, Segrave Aviation, to Delta Private Jets in 2010 and then served as President of Delta Private Jets from 2010 to 2013.
The merger with (blank check company) EG Acquisition Corp was originally announced in October 2022, and took a while for all the authorizations to go through.
Business Mix
flyExclusive now offers a full suite of private aviation options. When it started, the main product was providing wholesale charter lift to other providers. In 2020 they launched the Jet Club, a jet card type fixed rate product, which has grown to 29% of total revenues in 2023 and is expected to be 33% of revenues in 2024. The first fractional CJ3+ jets arrived just a few months ago and this part of the business will be under 1% of revenue in 2023, but is expected to grow to 11% of revenue in 2024, as some more of the many aircraft on order start to arrive.
Jim Segrave, CEO of flyExclusive, said this summer “The evolution of the business is going into fractional, of course. We've got those $600 million worth of airplanes on order.”
The company also provides a “partnership program” for aircraft owners who typically fly about 150 hours a year. These owners make the plane available to other flyExclusive customers and also can make use of the rest of the fleet if they need a different size aircraft than the one they own. This side of the business is expected to make up about 6% of the total revenue in 2024.
The very rough breakdown of the current fleet is mainly mid-size and light jets, as shown below:
- 10 Citation Encore Plus light jets
- 18 Citation CJ3/CJ#+ light jets
- 43 Citation Excel/XLS/XLS+ mid-size jets
- 9 Citation Sovereign super-mid jets
- 13 Citation X super-mid jets
- 7 Gulfstream GIV-SP large cabin jets
With the company projecting that the fleet will grow to 128 aircraft at the end of next year.
Jim Segrave noted “We have control of our fleet. We operate nearly 100% of our flights on our airplanes with our pilots that were maintained by our technicians, painted by our paint staff, interior staff, refurbishments.” And added “99%-plus of our customers fly on our airplanes. We're not asking a third-party operator to fly our customers. We're flying our customers. It allows us to control costs.”
The company says it has a 94% retention rate among existing members.
Financials
The company is projecting a total $323m revenue in 2023, with 98% of this coming from charter including the firms Jet Club sales. The balance is made up of initial sales from the new fractional jet program and also some MRO (Maintenance Repair and Overhaul) revenue. The bottom line has a loss of $26m and adjusted positive EBITDA of $25m.
In 2024 the total revenue is forecast to grow to $497m, with $473m (95%) from charter programs, while the burgeoning fractional program is forecast to grow to over $15m from just $2.6m in 2023. The company forecasts a profit of $7m and adjusted EBITDA of $50m.
Gregg S. Hymowitz, CEO and Director of EG Acquisition Corp. and Chairman and CEO of EnTrust Global said “We are excited that Jim and his team at flyExclusive have reached this stage and believe they are ready to further accelerate their market position as a public company.”