These Private Jet Companies Drew Aces At The Las Vegas Super Bowl

11.02.2024 - 22:53 / forbes.com / Warren Buffett / Patrick Mahomes / Airlines

Las Vegas, the venue for Super Bowl LVIII, could be a synonym for the private jet business entering 2024. After all, you arrive with high hopes and some money in your pocket. You leave a winner or loser, and sometimes with a hangover, regardless of how much cash is left in your bank account.

However, five companies seemingly drew ace cards to start, at least from a public relations and marketing perspective.

At the top of the list is Overland Park, Kansas-based Airshare.

In June 2018, it signed a quarterback entering his second year in the NFL who had started one game in his rookie season as its spokesperson.

Patrick Mahomes has taken Airshare's hometown Chiefs to six straight AFC championships, four Super Bowls, and, later today in Las Vegas, a potential third Lombardi Trophy.

The company used the future Hall of Famer as it expanded into Florida last year.

While that may seem like a small thing, for sellers of fractional and jet card flight programs, finding new customers is like looking for needles in a haystack, something that becomes more expensive and challenging in an increasingly fragmented media environment where the UHNW target is harder than ever to reach.

NetJets drew an ace for another reason.

It was at the Big Game last year that the nascent mid-contract negotiations between the unit of Berkshire Hathaway and NJASAP, the union representing its pilots, broke into the spotlight.

During an adjacent PGA golf tournament in the Phoenix area, the pilots launched a picketing campaign.

The pilots have said without a substantial bump (NetJets has offered a package that would provide a 52.5% increase in compensation), a significant number would exit to more lucrative remuneration at the big airlines, which have been signing record-shattering contracts.

Since December, NJASAP has begun invoking Berkshire Chairman Warren Buffett in their ads and press releases, taunting their employer.

More recently, they raised safety concerns with an ad channeling the Alaska Airlines exit door exit incident.

It was a response to a letter from NetJets lawyers to the union alleging self-help, an illegal effort to impact negotiations.

NetJets provided an 11-page analysis showing increases in fatigue calls and reporting of potential mechanical issues, grounding the airplane.

Former executives who were there during previous NJASAP negotiations say considerable gamesmanship goes on.

For example, a pilot would wait until the passengers were loaded with baggage before declaring they could not perform the flight instead of doing so at an earlier point.

Likewise, maintenance issues seemingly happened more frequently away from bases where technicians could quickly assess the situation.

NetJets has said customers have not been