Gaining Altitude

Meet Wheels Up, one of Inc.s Private Titansthe nations most dynamic non-public businesses. No, its notUberfor jets. But the rapidly growing company is lowering the price of entry into the world of private aviation.

- Kevin J. Ryan

Wheels Up founder and CEO Kenny Dichter calls his company the Netflix of aviation. That would be accurate—if Netflix were built for the 1 percent. An initial $17,500 individual subscription gets you a year of access to private planes essentially on demand, which explains the company’s client list of star athletes (Tom Brady) and musicians (Ciara), as well as execs like Hain Celestial CEO Irwin Simon. “Obviously,” Dichter says, “it’s wildly important to these folks that they get from A to B in a very, very efficient way.”

For years, the fractional jet ownership model—pioneered by NetJets in 1987—has prevailed. But that requires hundreds of thousands of dollars in upfront costs for the customer. Companies like Wheels Up are trying to expand the private-aviation market by lowering the barriers to entry.