Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft.

Part 135 charter, fractional ownership, and private jet management company Volato expanded its fleet by 50 percent to 24 HondaJets as of December, the Atlanta-based company reported Wednesday. The largest HondaJet operator in the U.S., Volato took delivery of three new aircraft in December, two directly from Honda and one as a managed asset. All told, the company added eight aircraft to its HondaJet fleet in 2023.
The aircraft additions and rapid integration into the company’s operations aligned with Volato’s growth strategy, including direct deliveries and contracting with owners to manage their aircraft.
"Volato's measured and thoughtful approach to fleet expansion is critical to achieving our long-term plan for sustainable growth," said Matt Liotta, co-founder and CEO of Volato. "We have been creative and judicious in acquiring HondaJets through the open market while continuing to receive new aircraft from our HondaJet factory order. The recent deliveries allow us to expand our capacity at a pivotal time in Volato’s growth and increase our capacity to support our growing customer base.”
For 2024, Volato expects to add another 10 HondaJets while plans for the remaining 12 call for deliveries mainly in 2025 and possibly into 2026. The expanded fleet ensures greater availability and flexibility for customers, said Liotta, whose clients enjoy what the company calls unparalleled access to aircraft regardless of their share size.
Liotta told AIN the four-passenger-seat HondaJets perfectly fit its business model, given that 70 percent of all private aircraft flights in the U.S. operate with four passengers or fewer.
“While those four-passenger-or-fewer missions could be on any variety of aircraft, we didn't see anybody that was actually trying to find the best aircraft for those missions,” he explained. “And so we went out and ultimately selected the HondaJet as what we thought was the best aircraft for doing four-passenger-or-fewer missions.
“Now, an aviation person would tell you a HondaJet is not as capable as a Phenom 300,” continued Liotta. “A Phenom 300 can go farther, it can carry more passengers. That's true. And there are obviously even larger aircraft than that that can go farther and carry more passengers. But what we've hit on is that most people aren't carrying that many passengers and aren't going that far.”
Volato’s business approach differs from many other fractional providers, for example, in that it doesn’t own any of the aircraft it operates and its clients don’t enter into a timeshare-based model so common in the industry. Flying what Liotta called a floating fleet, it uses Honda’s authorized service network for maintenance. “So all of our customers own our fleet, whether that's our fractional customers or airplanes we get on leaseback,” he said. “And so that makes for a less capital-intensive and risky endeavor.”
Regardless of the size of the share owned, a customer can fly an unlimited amount for an hourly fee while engaging in a revenue-sharing agreement. The amount a client shares in the revenue of fractional, charter, and jet card operations depends on the size of their fraction.
“This program has been extremely popular with customers because one of the biggest complaints about other fractional programs is the entitled hours aspect of it,” explained Liotta. "For example, are you underflying your hours and sort of throwing money away? Or are you potentially overflying your hours and having to pay a premium for extra hours? I've met fractional customers in other programs where they make friends with other fractional customers so they can use, borrow, steal each other's hours just to keep it all working.”
Volato’s next endeavor will see it enter into larger airplanes, namely Gulfstream G280s, four of which it expects to take in 2024. To arrive in a 10-passenger configuration, the super-midsize jets will serve as the company’s next growth platform as it brings its revenue-sharing offering to a broader category of customers.
“The G280 is quite a capable airplane,” said Liotta. “It’s quite a bit different from the HondaJet in terms of capability. Where it’s similar to the HondaJet is in its best-of-class cabin and efficiency.
“Most of our customers come to us because the HondaJet takes care of a lot of their needs. But they still have additional flight needs that are beyond the capability of the HondaJet. And they've been so happy with our level of service that they've often asked us, ‘Is there a way that you can offer other capabilities beyond the HondaJet?' So that's one of the things that we're addressing with the G280.”
Finally, Volato has signed a letter of intent with Honda Aircraft for its new Echelon, which the OEM markets as the first light jet capable of transcontinental flights.

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In this article

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Volato

Gulfstream

Honda Aircraft

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