Twenty-Five Years of Airshare: Building a National Aviation Platform

This year marks a significant milestone for private aviation provider Airshare as it celebrates its 25th anniversary, reflecting on a journey of growth and transformation. Founded with a modest fleet and a focus on the central United States, the company is now a national provider serving clients across the country, and offers a comprehensive suite of private aviation solutions. SherpaReport talked to CEO John Owen about recent growth and future plans.

From Regional Focus to National Reach

Founded in 2000, Airshare differentiated itself early with a days-based fractional ownership model, providing an alternative model to customers. Over the past 25 years, the company has strategically expanded its geographical footprint and diversified its offerings, which now include:

• Aircraft Management
• Fractional Ownership
• Jet Cards
• Charter Services
• Aircraft Maintenance

This strategic growth was accelerated in 2023 by the acquisition of Wheels Up's aircraft management business, and has cemented Airshare as one of the largest private jet operators in the U.S. It now offers its fractional program and jet cards coast-to-coast in the lower 48 states and also sees quite a bit of international travel. John noted that, in particular, they have a growing customer base in the Northeast, Southeast, and along the Atlantic coast, with their own office, passenger area, and an exclusive hangar complex at Teterboro Airport.

Regarding aircraft maintenance, the company has consolidated operations at three key locations: Wichita, KS; Fort Worth, TX; and Kansas City, MO.

Bolstering the Fractional Fleet

A significant component of that growth is the ongoing expansion of its fractional fleet, which features the most popular aircraft in their classes: the Embraer Phenom 300 light jet and the Bombardier Challenger 3500 super mid. The company is actively working to add more Challengers and Phenom 300s to its fractional program, ensuring high-quality, reliable lift for its growing customer base. John Owen notes that when the Challengers were first added to the fleet, several Phenom 300 customers migrated into the larger, longer-range Challengers.

Day Based Fractional Model

Airshare has always distinguished itself with a day-based fractional and jet card model. Meaning that owners buy day-based usage, rather than the more common hourly usage. Essentially, the aircraft is yours for the day, to fly as many hours as you need, which means that longer flights or multiple stops are really economical.

John Owen put it this way “People are so used to these hourly based models. When you present them with our offering, that they have never seen before, because we didn't offer our program in their areas (that they live in or fly in), they see how it is really unique and makes a ton of sense.”

John related a conversation that he just had with a potential client. The mission profile for this client was that they hop around to several locations. They have long legs, and some really long legs that even take them out of the US. John estimated that based on what they were saying, “they'll get over 100 hours out of their share with us”, adding “versus having to buy two shares with one of our competitors.”

Strategic Partnerships

Earlier this year Airshare partnered with the PGA of America to become the “Official Private Aviation Provider” of the PGA, including the prestigious Ryder Cup in 2025 and 2029 and the PGA Championship and PGA National Club Championship through 2029. The company’s partnership with the Ryder Cup is part of a broader strategy to align the brand with golf on its largest stages, as well as in several PGA regional sections across the country. It is all helping Airshare build a national profile as it moves from being a regional provider to a full national supplier of aviation services.

Another Airshare partnership is with luxury travel club Exclusive Resorts. The two companies provide very complementary services, and offer each other's customers preferred membership considerations. In discussing the relationship with Exclusive Resorts, John Owen noted, “We've got really similar customers,” adding, “it's a nice complement to each other, you can fly us to all these amazing homes.”

Laying the Groundwork for Future Growth

Over the past year, Airshare has also focused on strengthening its operational foundation to prepare for its next phase of growth, says John Owen. Central to this effort has been the development of a more robust technological ecosystem - one designed to ensure that the components of the business, from fleet operations and optimization to pilot scheduling to client services, all communicate effectively.

This integration aims to create a more transparent, predictable, and efficient operating environment. By modernizing internal systems and data flows, Airshare is positioning itself for scale while maintaining the service standards expected by private aviation users

And circling back to that 25th birthday, John proudly noted that the very first employee still works at Airshare adding “it was cool to be able to celebrate our 25th anniversary and her full anniversary with Airshare, being employee number one.”