Back from a long siesta…
Justin on Oct 13th 2008
Been a while. To bring everyone up to speed with some random thoughts:
1) The sky is not falling and people are still flying, albeit a little more cautiously with a serious awareness of value.
2) We launched the Palms Jet Pass last month, are gaining a ton of traction, and taking away serious marketshare from Jet Card and FRAX guys on their bread-and-butter routes.
3) Sentient and Jet Direct officially divorced. Jet Direct had a major presence at NBAA last week, and struck a very conciliatory tone for the way the punks at Sentient have done business and wrecked their company. Their message: “we are open for business”
4) Quick industry poll open to any and all Part 135 operators: has Virgin Charter ever actually booked a trip? Please respond.
5) Great quote from one of the Marquis guys last week to describe his business: “Flat is the new up”
6) We opened a new sales office at Farmingdale (inside SheltAir) to help keep up with demand for our new Palms program.
7) Conspicuous in their absense at NBAA: Sentient nowhere to be seen
…more later….I’m back.
Filed in Industry Trends, Interesting Stories, Sentient Jet Membership | 6 responses so far
Nick Oct 13th 2008 at 09:04 am 1
Welcome back! I enjoy your commentary on the industry.
Richie Oct 13th 2008 at 01:05 pm 2
In response to question 4:
Very few and far between.
Mark Oct 22nd 2008 at 08:06 am 3
I enjoy your commentary on Sentient very much!
Dave Oct 22nd 2008 at 12:26 pm 4
I had a flight with Sentient earlier this year from the Rockies to the east coast. I told the the “kid” who sent up the flight, we did’nt want a fuel stop and to size the aircraft accordingly. When we did stop for fuel due to the size of the aircraft (and their wanting to position the aircraft to the east coast, I later learned from the crew) I was pisssed. I called Hankin the next day and he credited the entire flight. First class guy by me, but when I heard about his departure from Sentient, I closed my account and they paid me with two weeks.
Suran Nov 11th 2008 at 02:06 pm 5
So far Virgin’s booking ratio with us after careful counting of quotes is 332 to 1. They just brought in Geoff Savage who is a good guy and in an honest and frank discussion at NBAA he told me that this will change shortly.
steve Dec 15th 2008 at 01:23 pm 6
Amazing how unprofessional your site is..I am sure that Sentient,Jetdirect,Virgin,Marquis and any others that you decide to publicly throuw under the bus are fine companies that have good and bad parts about them. How unprofessional of a guy you are Justin!