As of today, NetJets says “all requests for the NetJets Card Program will be placed on a waitlist.” This temporary pause for all jet cards extends the announcement from only a few weeks ago, of a pause on just the light cabin Citation XLS and Phenom 300.
NetJets again cites “today’s unprecedented flight demand” as the reason for this extended waitlist on their jet cards, and it sounds like this demand carries across the whole fleet from light jets, to large cabin aircraft. The biggest aircraft that NetJets sells cards on are the 11 passenger Challenger 650 and the 14 passenger Gulfstream G450. In the prior announcement NetJets had said they have “exhausted the production capacity of some OEM partners,” so they just can't get new aircraft fast enough, but at the same time they said have plans to add 30 more aircraft in the balance of 2021 and a total of 100 before the end of 2022. At SherpaReport we are certainly hearing, from many sources, that demand for new planes has increased significantly (and this is also driving the pre-owned aircraft market).
“We are confident that this temporary pause on the sale of all cards will allow us to prioritize the exceptional experiences we promise to deliver on all flights,” said Patrick Gallagher, NetJets President, Sales, Marketing and Service, and added "despite taking previous actions to slow our sales process, we have continued to see the interest in NetJets accelerate."
NetJets is making the commitment for new customers that "until we begin selling cards again, today’s pricing will be secured for those joining our waitlist. In other words, if the pause on cards extends into 2022, anyone on the waitlist will be grandfathered in at 2021 rates and terms by simply executing the agreement with no money down."
While NetJets is by far the largest private aviation company, this pause by NetJets creates some interesting opportunities for other jet card companies.