On planet Nine
Lots of people have tried to rethink business jet charter. But only a few are brave (or crazy?) enough to buy their own aircraft. But James Seagrim and Matthew Walter are confident about their new venture Planet Nine.
By the end of the year they aim to have four Dassault Falcon 7X aircraft flying around the world. Planet Nine is buying pre-owned aircraft and investing in cabin interiors and wifi. Because it will own the aircraft (and thanks to investors it plans to do this without any debt) it will have a floating fleet.
Seagrim and Walter – who have been running business jets since 2009 – are convinced that it will work. Just as importantly, so is Bill Wulf (who spent 20 years running NetJet’s finance team) and is Planet Nine’s CFO.
“We are confident because we have a proven business model with a good formula,” says Walter. “We feel we can fill a void for premium aircraft with 11 hours range – allowing us to fly from the West Coast to Europe – giving us a competitive advantage.”
Dassault is happy to have a branded charter company selling the benefits of the Falcon 7X and charter brokers are always happy to have operators who do not need operator approvals.
