USA. JetSuite, the trade name for Superior Air Charter, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware. This filing comes despite the business previously attracting major investments from both JetBlue and Qatar Airways.
The Dallas-headquartered airline company provides private jet charter flights on demand and through its SuiteKey jet card programme. JSX, a related company which uses reconfigured regional jets for scheduled flights from private aviation terminals in the Western US, is continuing operations with a limited schedule.
JetSuite grounded its fleet less than two weeks ago, blaming the coronavirus pandemic and related downturn in travel. Private aviation flights in the US declined by more than -30% in March and for the first two weeks of April flying plummeted by -80%.
The Superior Air Charter filing estimates the company has between US$1 million and US$10 million in assets and liabilities of between US$50 million and US$100 million.
Gavin/Solmonese LLC Chief Restructuring Officer Ted Gavin said: “JetSuite has always done its best to honour its commitments to customers throughout its exemplary history, and JetSuite leadership has spent and will continue to spend enormous time and effort pursuing strategic and financial alternatives to restart operations.
“Unfortunately, the global circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have caused JetSuite’s revenues to drop to near zero, and the carnage across the economy and in the aviation industry in particular is well reported and has no clear end in sight, so we have made the regrettable but necessary decision to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.”
JetSuite said in a statement on its website that it had safely operated more than 111,000 flights since 2009 and it will seek bankruptcy protection to reorganise, preserve and maximise the value of its assets, and potentially resume operations.
