Jessie: Good morning and welcome back to the VIP seat is New York City coming for private jet. Sit back, buckle up and let's take off. Okay, Preston, so starting off the show today, I have to admit, and I sent you this article, and I almost lost my mind completely, and then I calmed down just a little bit because I realized it wasn't what I thought it was. But there was an article that came out talking about how Mamdani the new mayor of New York, who's already kind of gone after the wealthy in a couple ways, is gonna start going after your private jet, but you dug a little deeper, and we're not the five alarm fire quite yet.

Preston Holland: Yeah, it was interesting. Jessie sent me this story. It was in Forbes. And so you would imagine Forbes, pretty reputable news outlet. You we like to read stuff on Forbes. And I clicked in and I started reading. I got about halfway through. And it was basically talking about how Mamdani is going to use the New York Port Authority to implement all these taxes on private jets. Because my first thought was there are no airports in New York City proper, right? Like tangential. You have to fly there to get there, but Teterboro's in New Jersey. And I started thinking, huh, I don't think he can do that. don't think, ⁓ like, has gotten a lot of flack for his whole treatment the Citadel CEO and doxing his apartment. But I was there's no way that he can actually come out to private jets. And then... ⁓

Jessie: New York City.

Preston Holland: I got to the solutions, what should owners do? And the first one said, you should charter when flying to New York. And I was like, smells bit like sponsored content. And so clicked in and I realized that the author this article is the owner and CEO of Elevate, which is charter company. And then I said, hmm. ⁓ Sorry, I said Forbes, I meant Fortune. Fortune is the actual ⁓ one. They sound the same. But still, you would imagine, I wanna have this. But Aviation actually posted this article. And look, I that yes, the current of York City, Mamdani, is coming after rich people. And he's coming after ⁓ kind of rich people, not even super rich people. ⁓

Jessie: Hmm. of fortune still. Yeah. Yeah.

Preston Holland: You know, if you have a inheritance of $750,000, which is a lot of money, but not that much money, yeah, not if you live in New York City. It's crazy. so the whole article is around this idea that Mom Donnie is now going to come after private jets by levying all these landing taxes and airspace taxes and yada, yada, yada. And don't think that the conclusion that the article came to

Jessie: If you live in New York City, takes a lot of people to there. Yeah.

Preston Holland: is going to be reality. But that's just me.

Jessie: Yeah, no, I read this and the first thing is, like, ⁓ my gosh, I'm so upset because just that's the natural response to any of these articles that come out. But yeah, if you dig a little deeper, maybe. I do agree with the theories that are presented in the article and do have to give kudos to Elevate because man, what an interesting way to get people to see your name. ⁓ At end of the day, it is a different form of marketing for sure. But. you come down to this, also I'm in New York City, so for anyone who hears sirens this podcast, that's why, because I just got here by But if we look this in detail, the problem is, and the argument that it's made is the pied a terre tax was just put in place, which everyone said he couldn't do. But because of his sheer eat the rich brand name and power with certain voting blocks, he was able to convince the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, to actually get this passed. So that is like kind of the conclusion that the article is drawing. And it's a reasonable conclusion that yeah, we should definitely keep our eyes peeled for this sort of thing. But the Port Authority is actually controlled. This is who runs New York, Teterboro the other major airports in the area. It requires cooperation between both the New Jersey and the New York governors and their boards that are in control of this. It would be quite difficult. I will say it's probably not impossible if he sets his sights on, we're taking, know, this is big form of income that we can go after. And we know that private jets end up always being a political football. So I don't put it out of the realm of possible, but we don't need to panic right now because there's no recent policy or announcements that he's coming after private jets.

Preston Holland: Yeah, and I think the other thing that people forget is that you have White Plains, which is where the regional event is happening this week. That is an outlet. You have Farmingdale, you have Islip, you have other options. They're not nearly as convenient. ⁓ But if situation came where Teterboro became so incredibly prohibitive to land at, the Blade flight becoming a little bit more attractive, right, into the city.

Jessie: Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: think that the reality is that the current administration in the New York City government is chasing ways tax rich people. And this feels like a natural place for you to go after. And the question is, does the New York City mayor have the type of political capital, because can't actually enact it, but does he have enough political capital? ⁓ to make something like this happen. And I think that is actually a risk and something to be of. But this headline reads like, he's definitely coming after it tomorrow. And I just don't think that's the case.

Jessie: Yeah, I was getting myself all worked up because I have a lot of friends in New York and I know a lot of wealth is leaving New York for these exact reasons. So I hope he doesn't go down this path. I think we've seen it in other jurisdictions. As soon as you start to go after the private jets or the wealthy, they have legs, they move, they'll just go somewhere else. And that's basically what's already happened because Ken Griffith has already agreed that he's going to Miami and a lot of other people are. I guess we'll just watch, but don't panic today. If you see this headline, it's not real currently.

Preston Holland: Well, that brings us to everybody's favorite segment of the show, which is Mile High Madness, where Jessie I go and find the best from commercial business, private aviation on the internet. And I'm going go first. I like seeing everybody that I am an ex Twitter user. And because of that, tend make friends on the internet, which is totally random. This one is from the Nomadic team. They did get some love. are guys who are active on Twitter X, ⁓ who some love from the Wall Street Journal. ⁓ So, ⁓ shout to Captain Bob ⁓ for a little bit of mainstream media press, going to pick up some of the big yellow buses. ⁓ Jessie, thing that I wonder is, how many of these Spirit airliners are going to get converted into VVIP aircraft? Do you think any will?

Jessie: No, don't know. ⁓ think there's so many airlines that are actually like desperate for aircraft right now that no, I think these things are going to get sold like real quick to like a high capacity carrier that needs them. Yeah, this was interesting. I saw a post on this too. Like I didn't even think about like the logistical mess that it was that basically a spirit shut the doors, threw away the keys and the pilots walked away. Like you got all these airplanes all over the country. Someone needs to go pick them up and move them back to a place the less or. ⁓ is paying for parking at. mean, gosh, that just like the disaster that must have been must have been exciting and crazy.

Preston Holland: Yeah, Bob had said on on X that he has currently and he's currently employing 32 contract spirit pilots. So they were former spirit pilots as contractors. He basically them and said, Hey, before you leave, can you go pick that up for us and move it to Ireland you know, they're they're crisscrossing all over the globe now trying to get back to lessors. ⁓ Then are the lessors do with them while they're sitting like, what a mess. I am not envious of them.

Jessie: Mm-hmm. Yeah, this is the risk of being the lessor, especially when something big like this happens. mean, I have to imagine most of them are probably already making contingencies, given that the difficulty spirit has had over the last couple years, but certainly not something you want to see for the leasing companies. All right, well, mine this week, ⁓ you I usually bring the funny, so I have now done that again. I just thought this was so funny and weird. ⁓ There's this girl in... ⁓

Preston Holland: Yep, exactly.

Jessie: I think it's Amsterdam or something, something Dutch. But for those who are not watching, she has this lobster costume. And apparently her small business is to go around and spray sunscreen on people. It's no lobster. Don't burn your skin. But some private jet company, I guess, did a collab with her, offered for her to come into the private jet and film with the lobster spraying costume. So pretty funny.

Preston Holland: It's like a paint sprayer. She has basically a paint sprayer and is spraying children with sunscreen. That is hysterical.

Jessie: I think she gets hired to go to events and like sprays people while they're walking around so they don't get sunburned. How it relates back to a private jet, I really don't know, but ⁓ interesting for sure.

Preston Holland: she kind of looks like she probably needs sunscreen. She is very fair skinned. So she probably got sunburned one too many times and said, let's start a nonprofit for kids with sunscreen. So ⁓ know what? If you think that your business idea is stupid, just remember there someone out there who is doing a private aviation collab spraying kids with sunscreen.

Jessie: ⁓ my god. you never know. and wearing a lobster costume on top of it. Just ⁓ amazing. And the internet.

Preston Holland: Yeah, no kidding. Well, speaking of things that are stupid, NTSB report has come out that one in four fatal accidents, pilots are testing positive for drugs. That crazy. The headline, didn't believe it when I saw it.

Jessie: Yeah. Yeah, the headline is a bit scary when you see it at first, but like when you start to dig into this story, because I saw this and I was like, whoa, what are you talking about? And honestly, my first thought went to, OK, we know how much of the problem there is with like antidepressants, and we know that most pilots are probably taking them, even though they're not supposed to. when you dig into this report, the NTSB reported one in every five, and this is fatalities involved in actually individual people. One in every is using some sort drug, 53 % of them have a drug in their system of any kind, 28 to 29 % have some sort of potentially impairing drug. Now, that includes illicit substances as well as things like Benadryl and stuff like that that's over the counter. So does it mean that they're actually impaired? We don't really know, but that was a very catchy headline this week and a little bit scary.

Preston Holland: Yeah, no kidding. When you read that, it reads as though every airline pilot is doing drugs. Like that is, when you read it, that's kind of what your brain goes to. That's where my brain went to. And that's not 100 % the truth. The NTSB, you know, they look at every accident and they know, you know, whether it's GA. Does the NTSB do hang gliders? That's a good, I actually don't know that answer.

Jessie: is high. Yeah, it includes everything. So it probably would include all forms of GA flying. And that was like one of the big distinctions. Yeah, yeah, all that stuff. Yeah, and like what level like they said, like, because 7 to 8 % are actually illicit drugs. So now I have to wonder like, how many of the people with THC in their system were actually just like the paragliders versus actual pilots.

Preston Holland: like the backpack mower parachute guys. Hmm. You can make statistics say just about whatever you want it to if you don't give the underlying data.

Jessie: You can, and you can make a headline that makes even like, know, that's the thing. You have to go beyond that line, folks. And that's what we try to do here for you. But mean, seven to 8 % on an illicit drug of some kind is concerning. Part 135 and ATP pilots were much, much lower on this. They didn't give an exact number. But I guess kudos to our professional crews out there that are not smoking weed before they get on their airplanes. Yikes.

Preston Holland: Yeah, Definitely don't do that. That is a, ⁓ and also maybe write headlines that are like GA in general, you know, over index, over index ⁓ possibly doing ⁓ as opposed so that you're not thinking, ⁓ the next time I get on my Delta Airlines flight maybe wonder if the pilot smoked little smoked toby this morning.

Jessie: that idea. you Yeah, no, but I think like to, you know, one of the things the mental health issue has been an issue for a long time. And I think what a lot of people know, but don't really want to say out loud is there are a lot of pilots taking medications that aren't FAA approved because they don't want to lose their job. So that's kind of the push for honesty instead of people just taking things that they shouldn't be taking and hiding it is to say like, OK, let's come up with a regulatory path in which they can take it and prove that they are OK and competent to fly. But that's, you know, The constant push and pull here.

Preston Holland: Yeah, no kidding. moving to the next story, Trump has decided he needs a helipad ⁓ the White House lawn. And a big news week for President Donald and his private things, because not only is he going to get a helipad in the lawn because it's killing the grass, but we're about to PBI to DJT. how many private flyers are going to be a bit confused the first time they see that one.

Jessie: Yeah, so I had a little bit of fun. It's, you know, like a three and a half hour drive up to New York for me. So I had a little bit of time on my hands today while we researching stories. And I decided what would Trump's heliport look like? And so I got my handy dandy AI out. If there's to be ⁓ a heliport the White House lawn, this is probably what he is. ⁓

Preston Holland: I love the gold Tennessee looking T for Trump in the middle of the helipad. And so instead of H, he's going to make it a T. Here's your landing spot. ⁓

Jessie: It's key for Trump. So I did have to coach the AI a little bit because first it put flagpoles everywhere. And I was like, no, OK, that's a safety hazard. We cannot have obstructions around our pad. So I allowed the gold eagles to remain a little bit. I thought that was fine. But the flags did have to get to put around the helipad with the lights.

Preston Holland: Yeah, I mean, this is something to be seen. For those listening, you should go watch it on YouTube because this AI rendering, we're going to drop this in the newsletter so that everybody can also witness this because it's just absolutely fantastic. ⁓ John Ballinger, who works for Guardian Jet, used to fly Marine So that's a fun fact. We do have a former Marine One pilot in our industry. He is amongst us. And has some really ⁓ awesome

Jessie: Yeah.

Preston Holland: He's got some really awesome stories of getting fly the President. Not Trump, he's a couple cycles but ⁓ super cool hearing some of those from him. But he is a former Marine One pilot and his Facebook photo is him flying, so pretty cool.

Jessie: Mm-hmm. It is cool. I will say, to be fair, like this is actually probably something that needed to happen for a while. Maybe not a golden crusted marble helipad on the south one, but these helicopters are getting bigger and bigger, more and more powerful. They are damaging things. It's probably from a safety point of view, a little bit better for the pilots to have somewhere. I mean, I'm sure they can land things on a dime if they're flying Marine One, but still, I think it makes sense and how Trumpian it would be for him to put a helipad on the way.

Preston Holland: And allegedly he is very involved. So the headline says that he is very involved in this process, that he is the one who is saying, we need a helipad. I don't want to keep looking at dead grass. And I think in my mind, can hear that meeting. So will say the Marco Rubio meme in which Rubio has a thousand jobs, Marco Rubio now helipad designer is back on the docket.

Jessie: Mm-hmm. I'm Yeah, but I mean, look, you know, love him or hate him. And I'm sure everyone has a big opinion in either direction. He is good for aviation in our business, at least generally speaking, you know, building a having Palm Beach named after him shows you that the guy really likes aviation. So we can at least that if we can't appreciate other things in our politics.

Preston Holland: Yeah. nothing else, it's getting renamed after him because of all the TFRs that he's created around that airport. ⁓ if for nothing else, ⁓ really stamping his mark because he's been leaving it with the TFR. I say when we visited AB Jets, I don't know if you remember this, but they a tiny Trump, it's like a Trump troll looking thing ⁓ that they on the board, on a map ⁓ where Trump at that time so that you know.

Jessie: Mm-hmm Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: that you're going to have troubles. Like their ops team has a giant map on the wall. It's got a teeny tiny Trump they pin it around where he is. So if he's in DC, the pins in DC, if he's in Miami, you know, he's at Palm beach, it's Palm beach. It's pretty, that was pretty funny. ⁓ I did appreciate that. That was pretty funny.

Jessie: It was cute. It's real cute and an easy visual to remember.

Preston Holland: Yeah, exactly. If you're wondering, if the ops team is wondering, just look at the board. So, congratulations to those folks at PBI and, you know, may the the renaming memory be in your favor because you are going to call it the wrong thing for a while, I would imagine.

Jessie: Now I wonder like when the other party gets back in, know, what other airports are like going to be susceptible to name changes? Because it depends on who it is.

Preston Holland: Hmm. Uh-oh. I can see us getting some pretty funny ones. Where's Gerald R. airport, right? Let's pick the really obscure ones. What's the guy who's voted out and voted back in?

Jessie: Yeah. Yeah, well you'd think Obama would get one. I would think that would be the next, like the next like, you know, if you're gonna do like some renaming, like there's a lot of JFK stuff over the years, like I would think Obama would be the next like left side. Yeah, there's Bush, so yeah, probably needs his name on a few things at some point.

Preston Holland: I would imagine. There's a bush. Yeah, no kidding. moving on to our next federal story, the FAA has cut its ⁓ target air traffic controllers. And I think that ⁓ this at a shock to me because all we've hearing about is how short-staffed ATC is and we need to staff up and we've had all this turnover because of COVID and all this kind of stuff. But actually, for the first time, ATC has reduced its hiring targets.

Jessie: Yeah, and this one's a little like hit or miss for me because I'm reading it and I was like maybe yes, but maybe no. So the target has been, and this is through 2028, is to hire 14,000 or to have a total staff of 14,633 controllers. They're now racheting that back to 12,563. So about 2,000 cut in the process. What they're saying is, We know about this new modernization effort and all the money that's been put aside to modernize ATC. they're saying the biggest reason they can cut staff is because they're going to have automated staffing tools. They're changing the ⁓ on time from four hours to five hours, which I didn't love when I first heard it. But then there's some other arguments in this article that say, even the been going up, controllers have been handling less traffic. It's quite complex. I don't know how to feel about it. I mean, I don't know. What are your thoughts, Preston?

Preston Holland: Can I ask a question? Why is the last number three? Like, why is this not a round number? This feels like a number that should end in a zero. I don't know why that's bothering me. Maybe it's the OCD part of me. But why do you need three at the end of that number? ⁓ don't know. Yeah, exactly. We are precise. But ⁓ I that, I think yes, the modernization will have to bring efficiencies. That is part

Jessie: It's specific. They're just proving how granular their math is for you.

Preston Holland: of else would you spend all this money if to bring efficiencies. I think that messaging probably goes over better if we're further down that path. We're not close. least my perception is that we're not close. We're not there. It's not going to happen next year. And so to reduce total number of I think the other thing on flip side is maybe this will make the staffing feel less

Jessie: Mm-hmm.

Preston Holland: bad and basically be the exact same, right? So if we're currently pacing, let's say we're pacing 5,000 less, after this number, we'll only be pacing 3,000 less, right? We'll only be behind by 3,000. So I think that it only really matters if close to that staffing level, and if it might be a little bit performative.

Jessie: better PR. Yeah. Look who we did. Mm-hmm. So one of the little things that was buried in here, and I think maybe they should have this a little bit bolder when this announcement came out, if they wanted to handle it better from a media perspective, the FAA software and they purchased it or agreed to purchase it in 2012 that was supposed to optimize their scheduling of their controllers. It still has not been rolled out. So 14 years later,

Preston Holland: Womp Womp.

Jessie: Right, so that's the thing that they're pointing to in this article is that, we're actually going to get this done and we're going to be more efficient with how we schedule people and reduce overtime. But again, if you already had a failure of software from 14 years ago, are you really going to be able to do that this time? I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe.

Preston Holland: Right. And also is it going to be running on like what Windows XP? Like, know, if the software is already 14 years old today, like good is it going to be?

Jessie: I imagine it's a new vendor. It's got to be. mean, or don't know. I will say, like, because I look at FAA data constantly because we're constantly updating my databases and my nonprofit. And I will say ⁓ gotten better. They started using, like, if you go to the website now, there's Microsoft BI tools, which ⁓ existed before. I don't think that... FAA definitely didn't publish them externally. don't even know if they had them internally. But there is some improvement in how they're processing and putting data out. So I'd imagine on their side that's also happening internally, which is all good. Again, cautiously optimistic, that, you know, I don't know. We'll see.

Preston Holland: Yeah, it's a, am a big fan of efficiency. I'm a big fan of technology. I that this administration, especially it comes to the FAA and DOT could probably use a little coaching in PR cause it's a little, it feels a little bit like trying to smack, you know, you're kind of smacking it with a hammer, like, I don't know if that exactly comes across like you thought it did. But you know, tactfulnes is not something that is but efficiency and actually getting stuff done is. So it aligns, I think, in that way.

Jessie: And if you're looking to not have a lot of hassles owning an because there are a lot of regulatory, financial, ⁓ hiring things that you have to deal with when you're operating airplanes, and I that, could just charter. And AB Jets has a fantastic Challenger 3500 fleet On of their legacy Lear 60s, operator. We obviously endorse them on this show because they're our sponsor, but they are fantastic.

Preston Holland: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the Challenger 3500 out of Teterboro feels like a great fit if you're trying to run away from the crazies who are trying to take your money. call ABJets for all your supplemental lift needs or your direct charter needs. They are brand new Challenger 3500s with complimentary Starlink, which is awesome because Jessie and I got to experience it during our flight with them. So thanks ABJets for sponsoring this week's episode of the podcast.

Jessie: All right, now onto my favorite story of the week because dogs and animals are great. Tennessee has recently passed this legislation, I think bipartisan legislation, allowing canines, police officer canines to be able to be flown on helicopters if they need it for emergency life support.

Preston Holland: Yeah. Can you imagine being the one person who voted against this rule? Like, I don't think that you can, I don't think you can maintain the political capital to get back from that. your constituents are going to be like, they the dogs. Don't vote for them. Like I can imagine the smear campaign now. Bob Jones against ⁓ letting dogs medevaced on helicopters. Vote for me. Right? So like this was definitely going to get passed, but I think that it is good. So good for Tennessee for

Jessie: Right. now. you

Preston Holland: recognizing that those canines do help support they are important keep in good shape. I also think that police dogs are very expensive to train. So this feels like something that would be smart.

Jessie: That's worth it. Yeah. mean, that was like my first thought was like, Oh, are you going to have like the anti dog people out there? guess there are some, even though I don't want to know them. Um, there are some people out there probably like, well, you know, what about the cost to transport the dog? But I imagine it's a lot of costs to train the dog in the first place. And also too, like these are animals who like, you know, against their own wishes, although they probably like it, um, are protecting and saving our communities. So I think we should give them a little bit of heroism.

Preston Holland: Yep, exactly. Here's what I really want to see happen next out of Tennessee is the Paw Patrol. I want to see the dogs with the goggles flying the helicopters to go pick up the other dogs. That would be awesome. I have a four and a half year old, so we watch a lot of Paw Patrol at my house. So when I picture dogs flying on helicopters, they're actually flying it, not sitting in the back. So that would be an awesome next iteration.

Jessie: Yeah. Yeah, and I know I'm getting like, I'm getting totally off track. I know this is a private aviation show, but also like while they're passing this rule, can they also pass a rule that I can pet the dog? I don't think it's fair. Like they're highly trained animals. You really think like a little snuggle from old Jessie is gonna like totally screw up their training. If bite me, that's my own fault.

Preston Holland: exactly. ⁓ backlash would be kind of tough though. So I would imagine that that's probably part of the reason. ⁓ Well, well, that brings us to the end of another awesome episode of the VIP seat. It is White Plains Regional Day when this show releases. So you're going to be there, reach out to us. We'd love to say hey, catch up with you, take a picture, take a selfie, post on all that good stuff. ⁓ Go follow VIP seat on LinkedIn, social media, Instagram, YouTube, all those good places.

Jessie: at your own risk.

Preston Holland: hit share, share it with a friend. Five star ratings help the show. So we would really appreciate it. It's very simple. Click the episode, click review, stars, that's it. If you write out the review, then we'll read it here live the air. So we appreciate everybody who's done that so Subscribe to the newsletter at thevipseat.com. We are to have you along for the know for Jessie, I know I speak for Jessie when I say that our listeners are. the best and so we really appreciate you. will see you all next week where we'll have more stories and a couple of exciting things coming up for you so stay tuned. ⁓ again to ABJets for sponsoring this week's episode of the podcast and we'll see you all next week.