NetJets Pulls Back on Jet Cards as Private Demand Runs Hot

A tight, private-aviation-first read on what moved in the last 24 hours.

NetJets curtails jet card and lease sales for the second time in five years Despite a fleet of 868 aircraft, NetJets is again limiting jet card and lease sales, President Gregg Slow pointing to record retention and surging demand from existing fractional owners as reasons to protect service quality over growth, according to Forbes. For flyers, it signals that even the largest operator is rationing access — expect tighter availability and firmer pricing across the top tier.

Fractional flying grew 11.5% in the first half of 2026 Fractional remains the fastest-growing corner of bizav, with global departures up 11.5% year over year in H1, NetJets up 11.8% and Flexjet up 11.0%. NetJets logged roughly 266,500 flights (13.6% of all business jet departures) and Flexjet about 97,500 (5.0%), underscoring how concentrated demand has become among the majors.

Rivals pounce as NetJets steps back Competitors are framing the NetJets pause as an opening, reporting jumps in their own card sales and new-client sign-ups, per Forbes. If you fly on demand, this is the moment to lock terms before the displaced demand tightens the mid-market further.

Starlink doubles business-aviation pricing, and operators split on who pays Starlink's Aviation Global Unlimited plan jumps to roughly $20,000 a month (from $10,000) with hardware near $200,000, effective this month. Flexjet says it will absorb the cost for owners while Nicholas Air paused installs over the "bait and switch," and Gogo's Galileo — on the Eutelsat OneWeb network with a three-year price guarantee — is positioned to take share.

Chris Rocheleau returns to NBAA after 18 months at the FAA The former acting FAA administrator is back at the National Business Aviation Association, according to industry reporting. Continuity between the regulator and bizav's leading advocate matters as supersonic, connectivity and crew-shortage rules all move at once.

LABACE opens in São Paulo as Latin America outpaces the field Latin America's biggest business-aviation show runs August 4–6 at Campo de Marte, with Brazil among the fastest-growing markets globally and Embraer, Bombardier, Gulfstream, Dassault and Cessna all on the ramp. Watch for light- and midsize-jet order activity that tends to set the region's tone for the year.

Gulfstream's G700 reclaims the LA–Farnborough speed record On July 30 a G700 flew the 4,740-nm route in 8 hours 27 minutes, 19 minutes faster than the Bombardier Global 8000 that had held it for ten days, per Aero Crew News. The tit-for-tat between Gulfstream and Bombardier is a useful proxy for real-world block times on ultra-long-range missions.

FAA moves to lift the supersonic overland ban A rulemaking (docket FAA-2026-6935) is open for comment through August 17, with a companion noise rule due later and both targeted for mid-2027 — the clearest path yet to repeal the 1970s overland ban. Boom's Overture gets the headlines, but a supersonic business jet is the more plausible near-term beneficiary for private flyers.