NetJets Aircraft Brokerage Arm Acquires Cerretani Group

QS Partners, the whole-aircraft brokerage arm of NetJets, has acquired Boulder, Colorado-based Cerretani Aviation Group, more than doubling its business aircraft sales and acquisition services. Cerretani had served as the primary broker partner of NetJets since 2013, before QS Partners was launched in 2016 to cover aircraft sales and purchases in-house, including pre-buy oversight of specific aircraft, legal, and financial advice, and technical services. Cerratani founder Nick Cerretani is now a partner at QS Partners, which has retained all seven of his employees.

“We sought expansion through acquisition to quickly increase aircraft sales channels and grow the aircraft transition services business,” said QS Partners president Brian Hirsh, who added that Cerretani is a “perfect culture fit” given their shared values of “doing what is right” for customers. According to Hirsh, the team has conducted “hundreds of seamless and successful aircraft transitions.”

QS Partners, which now has offices in Columbus, Ohio; Boulder; and London, is also the exclusive reseller of NetJets-certified preowned aircraft. “These are aircraft owned by NetJets and maintained to its high standards,” Nick Cerretani told BJT sister publication Aviation International News. “NetJets aircraft are prepared for sale to new-OEM standards, and because NetJets will take care of anything arising out of pre-buy, there are really no worries for buyers."

He also said buyers should not be put off by the number of flight hours and cycles on NetJets aircraft up for sale. "Higher-time aircraft sold by NetJets have proved to be as reliable as other aircraft with lower times,” Cerratani said, adding that their resultant lower prices make for a better bargain for buyers.

According to Hirsh, QS Partners is not expressly intended as a vehicle to steer business to NetJet's fractional services or, through sister company Executive Jet Management, charter and aircraft management services. "We are a global, full-service aircraft sales broker for all business aircraft," he said, "but one that can offer other services and products through our affiliated companies when needed by customers."