Jessie Naor: Good morning and welcome back to the VIP seat. We have the masters and the world cup coming up So get ready for a private jet summer, sit back, buckle up and let's take off.

Preston Holland: So Jessie, it is great to be back here on the VIP seat. We have a special guest in today, Greg Sydor from Guardian Jet. He had a sort of viral tweet go last night about the G650 market. And so I asked him, hey, you want to come on and talk about it? It seems interesting. And I got a lot of DMs from end users that were like, ⁓ this is very interesting. is this? And so I said, hey, Greg, come on, explain to us what's going on in Gulfstream G650 market. So Greg, welcome to the VIP seat.

Greg Sydor: Excellent. Well, thanks for having me. Big fan of the pod. Happy to be here.

Preston Holland: Yeah, for sure. So Greg, you are kind of the darling on Twitter right now. You have lots of viral which is awesome. Or X, sorry for those people. I keep calling it Twitter. I'm a loyalist to you had a tweet. going to pull it up here. And you are saying that G650 is now an appreciating asset and is kind of beating the depreciation curve. So walk us through what it is that we're looking at.

Greg Sydor: Yeah, sure thing. So a little bit of background about firm because ⁓ track these markets religiously. So for last 10 years, we've been recording basically every trade that's taking place across about 100 different models. And one of the markets that we participate in most actively are the large cabin ⁓ and this case, large cabin Gulfstream. And what we've seen over the last ⁓ seven or so ⁓ is these airplanes are not losing value at the traditional rate that you would expect. So Preston, I your world is aircraft finance. Any lender or banker could tell you they typically expect an airplane like this to lose between six and 8 % of its value each year in depreciation. And that just hasn't been the case. So since 2018 to now, a G650 has really only depreciated between 15 and 16%. And in the last 12 months, we've actually seen the value on these airplanes appreciate to the tune of two to 3%, which for an aircraft this size is two to $3 million. It's not nothing. And reason for this ⁓ is there's a lot more participants in the market. So I talked this a little bit in the tweet, but really just ⁓ a confluence a lot of different market accelerants. Firstly, you have new participants those that are coming into aviation as buyers for the first time aren't starting where you might think they would be in light jet or a midsize. They're skipping the line all the way to large cabin. You also have, I'll tell you, ⁓ and don't necessarily encourage that. We like to kind of crawl before they run, but who's to turn down someone?

Jessie Naor: Yeah, that's a big airplane to start with.

Greg Sydor: passionate about their next purchase.

Preston Holland: Yeah, no, that's interesting. Yeah, no, I think that that's so new entrants driving that. So it's not just like, I don't know, Elon Musk flies at 650, right? Bezos used to fly 650. So everybody just assumes like, everybody that flies 650 kind of looks like that. But you're saying that it's like, people who are not in the private aviation ecosystem, just kind of buying up what's out there.

Greg Sydor: Yeah, I mean, wouldn't say that makes up the majority of the participants, but it's part of what's driving so much activity. On top of that, you've got four cohorts of buyers, which are net worth, fortune flight departments, charter operators, ⁓ fractional operators. for most ⁓ out there, They typically only appeal to two to three of those four cohorts. And for this 650, seems everybody wants one.

Jessie Naor: Well, and that was my question too, is we sometimes see corporate flight departments come and go. are we at in that cycle right now? Does it seem like Fortune 500, they're rebuilding their flight departments, or these more individuals?

Greg Sydor: It does. You know, there have been a lot of corporate flight departments who have operated 550s. There's a really strong install base, you more than 500 of these produced. And a lot of those have been operated by corporate flight departments who in the last three years have recognized major economic tailwinds and an opportunity to do what we call fleet swap or upgrades. And they've really seized the opportunity. Part of that opportunity, and I talked to Preston a little bit about this, is the tremendous value play that is the 650. And that is, you're basically getting 90%, call it 85 to 90 % of the capability of a brand new Gulfstream, call it 700 or 800, at 50 % of the price. And you don't have to wait two or three years to get one. So for a lot of fortune companies that are trying to take advantage of positive shareholder sentiment right now, it's a quick solution. And for a lot of high net worth that finally find themselves in a position to upgrade, it's available.

Preston Holland: I think the, so I was talking to an end user and they said, I figured that the 700 and the 800 would just crush the 650 market. I think that that was kind of a general take or maybe an assumption when those two aircraft came out. is it, it, so, okay, a one-off example, and I'm sure this happens often, Bezos takes delivery of his 700, one of his 650s goes in the market, the second one goes on the market. I think that there was an assumption that that was going to be the natural replacement cycle. So basically what you're saying is the 550 is then stepping up into those aircraft as well and picking them up off the lightly used market. Jeff, he had maybe an interior that not everybody would like, but it was a relatively low time airframe. Is that the way that it's moving and it's almost propping up the 650 market as opposed to pushing it down?

Greg Sydor: I'd say so, yeah. I mean, I think any time that an OEM introduces a new model out in circulation, there is kind of this cascading waterfall effect where people or owners that were at the top of the food chain, so to speak, in a 650 that are now moving into the newest generation 800 are listing their plan for sale and it creates opportunity for every owner thereafter to upgrade. And so it inherently creates a lot of activity in the market. And that's what we're seeing right now.

Jessie Naor: So for anyone trying to take advantage of this or, you know, make money on their airplanes, which doesn't usually happen, I must say, give everyone that preface there. You know, what was the market like today? You know, what's available?

Greg Sydor: Yeah, the market today is very competitive. we look back 12 months ago, we had 35 upwards of 40, in this case, G650s, but it goes across all large cabin, global 7500s and 6000s, Falcon 7Xs, you name it. There was a lot more to choose from. And if I look at the 650 market today, there's merely three or four that are available for sale. And so not only do you have to be willing to pay up, probably a 10 % premium, which in our book is honestly fair given the scarcity at play, but you have to be willing to move quick and you likely need someone to help you get access to these airplanes as a lot of the 650s trading now are never even hitting the public markets.

Preston Holland: Yeah, that's interesting. people like, it the same across, like it, global 7500s the same thing? Like is it, is it linear is it exclusive to Gulfstream?

Greg Sydor: You know, I wouldn't say it's linear. I'd say ⁓ has probably seen the most activity in the 650 market, and that's because it's been very popular with corporate flight departments. And was also a popular ⁓ option of the tariffs that were in play. ⁓ You foreign buyers who thought, if I'm going to buy this and need to resell it in five years, I want to be able to sell it back into the biggest market and not be penalized with tariffs.

Preston Holland: Mm.

Greg Sydor: And so it became a popular choice in that regard, but I'd say across the board. It's certainly It's competitive the global 7500 market has ⁓ 50 of its listings pending deal pending Where you might find a little more optionality is in the Falcon 7x market. It's large cabin It's competitive with those other models, but there's just a little bit more to choose from

Preston Holland: Yeah, that's really interesting. Well, Greg, we really appreciate having you on the VIP seat this week. somebody wants to find out more about you, where should they go?

Greg Sydor: can email me at at guardianjet.com. You can get my number from Preston or you find me on x at sydor underscore Greg.

Preston Holland: Thanks, Greg. Everybody go follow Greg on X. He's a great follow.

Greg Sydor: Thanks so much guys, take care.

Jessie Naor: All right, so with that, loved that segment, by the way. I think we'll be having like some mini guests on in the future for little things. But in the meantime, the next segment of the show is Mile High Madness. And you said you have a good one this week.

Preston Holland: Yeah, no, I have a good one. Not often do you see end users posting about private aviation because it's little bit of a taboo subject. then I that you have two types. have, they post way too much and it's a little bit excessive. And then you have like, I'm never going to post about me flying in a private jet, but I for you a tasteful end user sentiment. ⁓ This is Carlos Miranda, Don Carlos on X. ⁓ TSA lines have improved. Arrived 10 minutes before my flight and greeted with sparkling water and a bomb yogurt parfait. Love me some NetJets, thank you God. And he posted a picture of his plane and the catering. He is a proud NetJets fractional owner. He also owns a helicopter parts distribution company. So he is of the industry and a user of the industry. So we love to see it.

Jessie Naor: You Love that. Yeah, mean, look, realistically, at what's been happening the last couple of weeks, you know, with four hour delays and lines, like, ⁓ cannot run your business ⁓ that kind of a schedule and that kind of unpredictability. So kudos to you, sir. Embrace the positives of business aviation because there are many and we are not always appreciated for that fact.

Preston Holland: Yep, big fans.

Jessie Naor: Alright, so mine this week... So in Seattle, someone has taken a, well, I don't even know what kind of Boeing this is, but it's some sort of Boeing airplane, and they've stuck it between two apartment buildings, and I'm like, ⁓ this is awesome. And I love to see architectural use of airplanes, and I just think this is really, really neat, and people should to do it, because it looks cool.

Preston Holland: Yeah, shout out to last week. Maybe that's kind of what she's doing with the airplane with no wings and no engines.

Jessie Naor: All right. ⁓ and this is a 747 actually now that I see it. But it's wedged between two skyscrapers, you know, in honor of Boeing in Seattle. So pretty neat.

Preston Holland: Yeah, Queen of the Skies. We love that. We love great art. You ever seen one those Moto desks, the Moto art? It's like the inside of a wing and you put a glass tabletop on it. It's very cool. It's very expensive, really cool desks that are aviation themed. like, mean, I have that kind of money. We need few more sponsors before I could get one of those desks, but pretty cool anyways.

Jessie Naor: Mm-mm. yeah. Yeah, no, there's definitely there's a whole like cottage industry of like engines and turbines and all sorts of art out there. There's actually some shops down here in Fort Lauderdale to do that. So pretty neat stuff.

Preston Holland: Yeah.

Jessie Naor: And un-"neat" stuff apparently the Delta Private Jet's website has been taken over by scammers?

Preston Holland: Yeah, it's brutal. I'm going to share the screen here so that you can see what it is. And for those people who are just listening on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, go check us out on YouTube. But this is the fake Delta Private Jets website. And it kind of looks like something, right? A leading edge award for best private jet service from executive jet traveler. Opportunity like money shouldn't be squandered. locked in pricing, yeah, copyright 2011. they went to the way back machine and I guess pulled what is likely the original site, but it's totally a scam. I'm just saying that someone probably got fired for letting that URL expire. like, you know, if you ever been a part of a company transition, the domain transferring is like,

Jessie Naor: It has the old disclaimers on it, everything. Yeah.

Preston Holland: checklist number one on ⁓ &A, right? Like if you're buying a company, running down your IT checklist, domain transfer, which is part of the IP transfer is like way up there. ⁓ then you set them on auto renews that you make sure that it's always renewing. And private jets.com ⁓ used forward to wheelsup.com, but it anymore. So that's a tough look.

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. Okay, to be fair, this deal closed in 2020, so it probably was like the five-year expiration or something of the domain name, like, how long do you keep it for? I don't know, like once the brand is gone, like, what do do with it? Yeah. No, probably.

Preston Holland: I mean, you don't let it go to the public auction and let people buy expiring domains. I mean, doesn't matter how long it is. Someone's going to type in Delta private jets. And if not, you're going to end up with a scam site, which is exactly what happened. Like you have to renew that one.

Jessie Naor: Yeah. Well, and like, what are they doing with this? Because the phone numbers on there don't work. I mean, the emails are no longer valid. So what's the play?

Preston Holland: I mean, think the, I don't know, I'm nervous to click on anything. I get a virus or something on my computer, but I that the play is probably just to trick people into thinking, you think this, maybe you bought domain off an expired auction for a thousand bucks and you get some to wire you a grand, ⁓ you know, private jet deposit, okay, that's ROI.

Jessie Naor: Don't click on anything else. Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: This is not scamming 101, but I would imagine that that's probably the thought process. When you think about how many crappy emails that you get and what their percentage of hit rate is, like it cannot be very high, but it only really takes one for a lot of that effort. It's 100 % margin business. Scamming people is the only 100 % margin business that you have. So it's like, you know, I don't know. It just, it really stinks for the team at Wheels Up, honestly, cause it's like, now they're having to like,

Jessie Naor: Right.

Preston Holland: try and sue and it's somebody probably overseas and they have a lot of layers and like scammers are unfortunately pretty good at what they do. So this is not great for Wheels Up or for know, because their name in it, like it's just not good.

Jessie Naor: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's not. And I just realized, like, I'm saying the emails are defunct, but no, they're not, because they have the domain, so they can make whatever emails they want. like, this is, yeah, not a good situation.

Preston Holland: Yeah, and now they can use DeltaPrivateJets.com to send out spam emails. Like there's just a lot of, I don't know, you buy a list of a thousand very rich people, you send them a link, it looks kind of legit. It looks like a website from 2011, which is what the copyright is in the foot, but still, I don't know. Maybe you get an administrative assistant who's in charge of travel. Like there's just so many people you could scam here, and that's the play, unfortunately.

Jessie Naor: Looks legit. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: So if you are listening, Delta Private Jets has been taken over. not send them money only to Wheels Up or Delta itself and be on the lookout for bad emails from bad actors. Yeah, exactly. Well, ⁓ moving to our next story, we have got some more news from publicly traded companies. So Fly Exclusive has officially filed a patent for their FMS ⁓

Jessie Naor: not a real company anymore.

Preston Holland: they are now licensing it to other operators free licensing fees, by the way. So you basically get to use their software for free that they have used to optimize their fleet. And they're trying to it. They announced it at Schedulers and Dispatchers last week. was one of the few kind of shifting type announcements that last week Schedulers and Dispatchers. yeah, it's pretty interesting. Jessie, from an operations standpoint, if you're an operator,

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: Are you putting your FMS on a competitor's

Jessie Naor: Yeah, so this has been the scuttlebutt on the internet this week is, you know, okay, we're really going to do this. This was the same thing that happened when Tivoli was run it rolled out also wheels up. I think they had some sort of like plugin they wanted. Avianis honest, the Avianis deal. Everyone was freaking out about Avianis . I don't know. I mean, the thing is, you know, this is the strategy it's free. So for anyone who's Hey, I do like really good work with them and it's free. Why not use it? I would say like me a former operator, I think I would be giving away that information because it's so critical. It's so sensitive. The other thing I am concerned about here is price fixing and the antitrust angle of the story because what happens and how do you control like, you know, who sees the pricing and the availability? Like I'd be worried from the antitrust perspective more than anything else if I was fly exclusive, but maybe they've got some genius way that they figured out to kind of like firewall themselves from the information. I don't know, but that was the thing that kind of got my head scratching like you really want to have access to everyone's prices because that seems like that'll get you in trouble.

Preston Holland: Yeah, I I think that think if you take a step back and you look at the way in which software in the operator industry is moving, you have some you have some interesting trends of people trying to solve the aggregated side of the equation. You have parties like Goodwin, who is ⁓ sourcing for they're kind of taking ⁓ one route, is, hey, we're not an operator, but we're aggregating all of this supply to then help independent brokerages and smaller brokerages kind of at scale. And then you can build some interesting technology off the back of that. You Hamilton AI, who is just an FMS, but it's kind of next gen. Use all the data in an anonymized way to help inform the other groups. I think that's an interesting play. But again, independent third party. They're not owned by an operator. You have Stratos Jet, who's kind of taking whatever the other side of that coin is, which is franchising brokerages, yet aggregating all of that supply in kind of a dedicated sourcing model. so selling franchise is taking franchise fees, but the whole core underlying aspect is aggregated operator supply. So if you look at it, just if you take a half step back, this slots exactly in line with the general trend in the industry. And I think what a lot of people are trying to figure out

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: as have experienced as an operator and all of my operator friends tell me is like, yeah, quoting is a lot of phone calls and emails and no one really knows and no one knows where the whole fleet is at any given time, regardless of how hard you've tried to figure it out. No one what's empty, what's available, when's it going, all of that kind of stuff. And so think trying to solve that problem. I think the challenge is, is, you're you cannot ever claim to be like, ⁓ look, we're totally third party because you're not third party. That's that's the hard part.

Jessie Naor: Yeah, yeah. Well, and look, I mean, the airlines solved this with the GDS, the global distribution system. Like that's how, you know, they solve the same problem. We've all been trying to solve that for like the last, you know, a few decades. And maybe with AI, I think there's some interesting things that are going to happen out of that. You know, that may help the process more, but at end of the day, it's still a fragmented system. And yeah, I don't know. I just think it's kind of anti-competitive potentially. So I just don't know how they're going to make that work. But I guess. that's probably been thought of. anyone is from FlyExclusive and wants to explain their thoughts, you are welcome to send them to us. ⁓

Preston Holland: Yeah, no kidding. I mean, look, they fly a lot of wholesale charter. mean, the reality is Fly Exclusive is not just a retail brand. They're also a pretty big wholesale supplier. think the one other parallel I saw drawn on the internet that ⁓ was interesting to me is if you look at the timing and you kind of have the

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: potential future resolution of the Wheels Up Fly exclusive lawsuit that is public information. We've talked about it on the show. now filing this patent, it's an, the timing not be but they are, it may not be, is not causation, but there is a correlation kind of on a timing standpoint. So I think that that's interesting. think, look, if you're gonna be a public company, you have to have diversified revenue. And they have, they have MRO, they have charter, they have retail charter, they have fractional, like they have multiple lines of business. So from a strategic standpoint, I think it makes sense. I just think it's gonna be really hard to get larger which are the ones who benefit from this system. ⁓ Your airplane operators don't really benefit necessarily from this FMS. Yeah, exactly, but you're not gonna go get your.

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. need optimizing.

Preston Holland: third largest competitor to all of a sudden adopt your FMS. it's, unless there's maybe some sweetener in the background, I don't know. Maybe like, if you're like, hey, if you're on this, get instant quoting on the fly exclusive fleet for recoveries. That, I can see how that could be beneficial. That would be interesting, ⁓ Like I think there's ways you can make it interesting. I think that that's an uphill challenge because operators are very private with their data.

Jessie Naor: Thank Yeah, and look, I mean, their approach to this is that, it's free. And a lot of these systems, and I will tell you, even just back a few years ago, the only people I knew of, and I will not say who they were, that could actually solve some of the optimization problems with large fleets, they wanted like 2 to 5 % of your revenue. And I was like, no. I'm sorry, absolutely not. This is a genius system, and I'm not paying that amount. We'll figure it out with our Excel sheets. You know, we'll have to see how this goes. It's definitely an interesting play and I don't blame them for trying because we know that it's a problem. There's plenty of slack in the industry and they're trying to solve it. I get it.

Preston Holland: Yeah, think the one close, my one closing thought on this is, is I heard on a podcast once, um, if it's free, you and your data are the product or you and your data, like that's what they're selling. And so I think that that's what the perception is going to be as like, well, if this is free, they have to make money somehow. So it's either my data is the product or I am the product. Like those, those are the only two choices and no one, no, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. Yeah, ⁓ and I have one other closing statement on this too, and this is not operators. This is pilots that are doing contract work on the internet. Price fixing is illegal. cannot go on these Facebook sites and tell each other what you're charging people. That is antitrust. I'm just letting everyone know because I know it's common practice and seems to be everywhere and no one wants to enforce it. but don't do it. It's not right. supposed to be in a competitive market, not and fixing prices. That's kind of the whole reason for those rules.

Preston Holland: Yep, exactly. on to things that are relevant to antitrust business aviation, Sam Graves is retiring, which is congratulations off into the world of retirement, but ⁓ crap, not awesome the industry, I don't think, generally.

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so for those who don't know, Sam has been a big champion of business aviation, private aviation. He's a GA pilot, so he really understood the world and understood all the issues. he was the head of the transportation committee. So was really pushing forward a lot of really good stuff, including like the ALERT Act, which actually passed this last week, which deals with all the safety issues that the NTSB has called out since the DCA crash. you know, things like TCAS dealing with conflicting routes helicopters and airplanes, all the really, really important stuff that NTSB says you need to do, ⁓ he was really that. So it will be a loss for the industry. Hopefully we get someone else at least kind of understands our world a little bit in the future, but it will definitely be a rough transition.

Preston Holland: Yeah, so it's interesting. I was spending some time in the Georgia state Capitol. We're educating some of the state legislature. We've got some things are important to us in Georgia. We're not a flyaway state. There's a lot ⁓ of there's a of pressure on MROs in Georgia. And so we're educating, we're not lobbyist group, educating the people. everybody who came through was either a pilot or an aircraft owner, right? So they either rode in the front, in the back, you know, they were a ⁓ customer or something like that. And so those are the advocates that you have to have in these governmental positions. ⁓ think too, as we look at career politicians, right? So like there's a kind of a big push for, you know, founding fathers were also farmers. They were also, you know, doing other things of their political life. So it's like, we need more GA pilots and business aviation connoisseurs in there fighting for what it is that we care about. I think that this is a place where NBAA really steps in and provides a ton of value to our industry. They catch a lot of flack for some things, right? But as lobbying organization, this is, their time. Like they need to find us our next guy who's gonna champion business aviation and general aviation in Washington. surely there's got to be some more pilots there in Congress. mean, just size, right? I mean, there's got to be somebody. So let's figure out how to get them up the top. Because there's plenty. Donald Trump's big user of private aviation. David Sacks is a big user of private aviation, right? Like, they all are, let's be honest. So we need champion there in Congress.

Jessie Naor: Yeah, but the same people who will slam private jet users on their ex feeds and certain political inclinations are also the same people who are literally in that airplane the next day, but it's such a good political football ⁓ they don't like to admit it. So that's the problem is getting someone who A, understands it and understands the value, ⁓ not for private jet users, but we're talking about aerospace manufacturing, connecting cities that could normally be connected. medevac, all the other cool stuff that we do that people don't get and don't understand, but also having the backbone to actually push it forward to and not just being afraid of it just because it's taboo.

Preston Holland: Yeah, exactly. Well, speaking of Washington politics, ⁓ have funding for TSA. Finally. That pretty insane. Now, I will say this. Small tertiary experienced absolutely no delays. ⁓ I went the TSA at Chattanooga. I was through my normal 90 seconds from the front door to at the gate. It was great. Because most of our agents in Chattanooga, this is like a retirement gig for them. So they're like, yeah, whatever. ⁓

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. you

Preston Holland: I don't really like I'd need to be paid. But, know, I'm not going to lose my house if I don't. Both lines are open. It was great. But Bloomberg actually reported it was interesting. I sent Jessie this article is that like, people are buying $34,000 flights to avoid TSA lines. And I was like, great deal, actually, like, ⁓ good, fine. They have found must have found an empty or something. ⁓ Or like a PC 12. Right? Like that's just

Jessie Naor: I can't. Yeah.

Preston Holland: a last minute ASAP, that's not that crazy expensive. ⁓ I do think that there's a lot of turmoil and it's the TSA turmoil that helps support the validity and the usefulness of our business.

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and this was like such a big media story. think honestly, look, I flew probably five or six times just over the last two weeks when this has all been going on. I never had a problem, but the general line was a problem. I've got clear and like pre-check. So like I was through no problem at all. I think what happened was a lot of families and people that don't fly a lot were panicking getting to the airport like three, four hours too early and it was a bottleneck. So like I'm here in Fort Lauderdale, the cruise ship people, you everyone was coming like four hours before their were supposed to, then it just overwhelmed the system. So I don't know. I'm glad this is kind of becoming over because it just wasn't good in general. Good for private aviation. But I will say there's still not funding for every department. So things like customs and border protection, private jet users could still have some problems there because the after hours, the unscheduled landings, all the inspections need to take place. If those people aren't getting paid, we might have some more issues there.

Preston Holland: Yeah, no kidding. Well, more issues that are coming up. The World Cup is coming up. don't know if anybody remembers when I had the tweet about the Wheels Up guy saying that World Cup was going to create like 7 million new private flights. Just not ⁓ true. But World we've already got some signs of some stress from the World Cup. So Mexico out with an alert basically saying that, you know, instead of

Jessie Naor: Yeah.

Preston Holland: individual permits, that there's going to have to be 90 day blanket permits. So instead of like you being able to get your one off permits. Now, think that this is an interesting thing because from what I've heard on the ground is this is it is not because of World Cup, but it's going to affect World Cup traffic, ⁓ who are wanting like, okay, my got in. So therefore I need to go in four days and it's not going to be that easy.

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think this will be where large scale operators that go ahead and get those permits in advance, go ahead and get them in advance, like be ready for this, because also you never know when the Mexican government just decides not to process things or says no to things. It's a little unpredictable. That's when you need experienced handlers. But it's going to be happening this year, 11th of June through 19th of July. So we're talking about a six week period from, you know, Mexico, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Miami. These are all going to be very, very busy airports. Expect super high ramp fees. think, know, what, Masters next week, we're already seeing like $2,000 a day on the ramp so far.

Preston Holland: Yep. Sounds about right. And, ⁓ I mean, you also have to think about cabotage, right? Like you have cabotage laws in both Mexico and the U S so you're have a lot of going in and out of Texas, you know, hit, hitting the ground and popping back out. So, those would be interesting. yeah. So I think like the general stances is everybody knows that these events are coming. ⁓ for those who are ⁓ less experienced in it may

Jessie Naor: Mm-hmm. ⁓ huh. Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: it may be prudent to not just take every single World Cup flight that comes to you if you don't have experience with these large events. another thing like the FAA is five minute windows, departure five minute windows at airports around the US stadiums. So like I know is getting a game. You've got like three or four different airport options, but it's going to be, you you go or you, you know, kind of stuck. So ⁓ Departure windows are crazy. sure that your passengers use the restroom before you leave because you're probably going to have some wait in taxi area. So yeah, it's pretty crazy.

Jessie Naor: We'll have to see what happens too, because usually the game that is played with these slots and these reservations is that people buy them up in advance and then they have them available. But when we're talking about like 16 different events, you can't as an operator really go around to like buy up a slot at every, I mean, maybe you can, but that's starting to get so exorbitantly expensive. I don't know how many people are gonna take that risk or maybe they just do like, okay, we know the late stage games in Miami the New York one is gonna be, you our prime spot, but ⁓ we'll to see how that all goes.

Preston Holland: Yeah, is there, don't know the answer to this, but I'm curious if there's like a secondary market for these slots. can you, like are trade, are there like slot trade groups and stuff? Like there's a lot of weird WhatsApp groups out there for charter. Like I'm just curious.

Jessie Naor: I think there's probably like, it's like an unspoken thing. I mean, you know, I think the game that is mostly played is that the charter operator that wants the trips goes ahead and preemptively scoops up that slot with their tail number. and then just waits until someone has to have that flight and then they can charge what they need to charge to cover their expense and their risk. But I don't know how easy it is to trade them because I think the FBOs were trying to crack down on this. So it's like, has to be your tail number. You have to say who's coming in. I don't know. think they're getting, maybe they're getting stricter on it, but maybe they're not because they're also making bank on these fees. So maybe not.

Preston Holland: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that's interesting. Well, it's going to be crazy to watch. If you have any crazy stories from Masters Week, we want to hear about them. drop us a note. Hello at thevipseat.com. This has been another awesome episode of the VIP Seat. Thanks, Greg Sydor, for coming on and talking about the G650 market. If you liked this show, leave us a comment. Give us a five-star review. I did get a text from Ryan Cranford. who said that he, with Rhodes Risk Advisors, he left us a five-star review on Spotify. So thank you, Ryan, for giving us that five-star review. Thanks to ABJets for sponsoring this week's episode of the podcast. Go subscribe to the newsletter at thevipseat.com, where we do a breakdown of all these stories every week. Share it with a friend. We will see you all next week.