Founded

1964

Headquarters

Columbus, Ohio

Key People

Adam Johnson

Number of Employees

6,300

Phone Number

877-356-5823

Website

NetJets

NetJets

About NetJets

This Berkshire Hathaway division is the leading provider of fractional aircraft ownership. The company—which operates the world’s largest fleet of privately owned aircraft—also offers jet cards. Its shareowners pay a buy-in cost for their portion (one-eighth to one-half) of the retail cost of their jet, a monthly management fee, and a per-hour charge for flight time.

Among the world’s first jet charter and management companies, NetJets was founded in 1964 as Executive Jet Aviation (EJA). Early board members included former U.S. Air Force generals Curtis LeMay and Paul Tibbets, Jr., as well as actor Jimmy Stewart and entertainer Arthur Godfrey. In 1984 Richard Santulli, a mathematician and former Goldman Sachs executive, bought EJA, and in 1987, following a statistical analysis of pilot logbooks, the company launched the world’s first fractional-ownership program. The concept has since been widely copied.

Warren Buffett purchased a share in 1995, and in 1998 Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company he controls, bought EJA. The NetJets name was adopted in 2002. In 2012, NetJets announced orders for Bombardier Globals and Challengers, Cessna Citations, and Embraer Phenoms totaling $17.6 billion, the largest aircraft purchase in private aviation history. NetJets now has some 750 jets and more than 7,000 shareowners and operates some 300,000 flights annually. Berkshire Hathaway doesn’t disclose financials for individual companies but it credited NetJets in part for the 2017 jump in service business revenues to $11.249 billion.

Among the company's offerings:

Fractional ownership

NetJets offers 12 aircraft models via share or lease across light, mid, super-mid, and larger-cabin aircraft from Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, and Gulfstream.

Jet cards

The Marquis Jet Card provides access to the NetJets fleet in 25-hour blocks; Cross-Country and Elite Cards offers access to Challenger 350 and Cessna XLS jets, respectively.

Aircraft management and charter

Subsidiary Executive Jet Management, which operates more than 100 aircraft, provides aircraft management and charter.

Aircraft brokerage

QS Partners handles fleet dispositions and sales and acquisitions for NetJets clients.