In 1986, NetJets founder Richard Santulli was considering the purchase of a private jet.
As a mathematician and Goldman Sachs executive, he studied the finances from every angle – and simply couldn’t make sense of them. The cost of downtime was too prohibitive, and he knew that he couldn’t use the aircraft often enough to justify the expense.
Determined to make flying privately more cost-effective, he considered co-owning an aircraft with partners. But they quickly found that managing the schedule would be impossible – they all wanted to use the jet at the same time. In Santulli’s own words: “The only reason to have a private airplane is if you can use it whenever you need to”.
His solution? NetJets: a fractional ownership model that offers all the benefits of full aircraft ownership, but with far better value. Santulli’s pioneering idea led to rapid expansion in the US, and NetJets Europe was launched in 1996.
NetJets’ success didn’t go unnoticed. Renowned American investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett trusted his flying to NetJets, and was so impressed that he bought the company in 1998.
Today, NetJets is the world’s strongest private aviation company, backed by one of the world’s strongest businesses.