A Piece Of The Fraction

How fractional ownership of an aircraft works and its biggest players right now.

- Michael Verdon

IN EARLY 2020, Kenn Ricci believed that Flexjet was failing in front of him. “It was the start of COVID-19 and our fractional business dropped from 200 to eight flights per day,” says Ricci, the principal at Directional Aviation Capital, which owns Flexjet, the second-largest fractional provider in the world.

Yet Flexjet soon boomeranged, then kept expanding, as did the fractional model in general, mirroring the eventual growth the rest of business aviation experienced during the pandemic.

Fractional ownership, where individuals or corporations buy a share of the aircraft, typically ranging from one-sixteenth to one-quarter, for three to five years, involves greater time and financial commitments compared to jet cards and charter services. But it also guarantees availability, newer aircraft, fewer peak days, higher service standards, and the ability to move across jet types.

Another differentiator is that while the demand for charters and jet cards seems to have normalised, fractional