Business owners are calling Jet Cards ‘Costco for private jets.’ Charter brokers are scrambling: The membership model that’s breaking aviation pricing.

The model isn’t new. Costco cracked it in 1983. Private aviation is finally catching up.

David renewed his Costco membership last week. $65. No hesitation. He’ll save that on rotisserie chicken alone. Three days later, I sent him a Jet Card renewal quote. $63,000 for 10 hours. He asked for time to think about it. Same person. Same decision framework. Wildly different emotional response.

When you walk into Costco, you flash your membership card. You buy what you need. You pay per item. No surprises. No negotiation. No wondering if the price will be different next week.

That’s the model. Pay upfront for access. Then pay a fixed rate per unit. Bulk buyers love it because it removes variability. Costco loves it because it locks in repeat customers.

Now apply that exact same model to private aviation. Pay upfront for a Jet Card. Get access to a fleet. Pay a fixed rate per flight hour. No repositioning fees. No market-rate surges. No quote roulette.

The price you see is the price you pay. Every single time.

How the Costco model works

Costco doesn’t make money selling groceries. The margins are too thin. They make money on memberships. $65 a year for access. Then you buy what you need at near wholesale prices.

The psychology is simple. You’ve already paid the upfront cost. So every trip to the store feels like you’re getting a deal. You’re not paying retail. You’re paying the membership price.

That feeling, the sense that you’re beating the system, it keeps you coming back. And the more you use it, the better the value gets.

Jet Cards work the same way. You pay upfront for a block of flight hours. That’s your membership fee. Then you pay a locked-in hourly rate every time you fly. No hidden costs. No fluctuating markets. Just the rate you agreed to when you bought the card.

The more you fly, the better the economics get. Because you’re not reacting to the market. You’ve already locked in your pricing.

The Costco model people underestimate

Costco doesn’t just sell one membership. They sell two. Basic membership at $65 per year. Executive membership at $130 per year with 2% cashback on all purchases.

The logic is simple. If you’re buying enough, the Executive tier pays for itself. The cashback covers the higher upfront cost. So the more you use it, the more the upgrade makes sense.

Airly Jet Cards work the same way. Three tiers. Three different commitment levels. Same model, scaled by usage.

5 hours: Entry point. Testing the model. Seeing if the economics work for your routes. Lower upfront commitment. Fixed per-hour rate.

10 hours: Regular flyer. You’ve done the math. You know it works. Mid-tier commitment. Fixed per-hour rate.

25 hours: Frequent flyer. Flying 40–60+ times a year. Highest upfront commitment. Fixed per-hour rate. This is where the model really pays off.

The structure is identical to Costco. The more you use it, the better the economics get. You’re not locked into a tier you don’t need. You pick the one that matches your behaviour.

And just like Costco, if you’re flying enough to justify the 25-hour card, the per-hour savings cover the higher upfront cost. The math works itself out.

Why charter pricing breaks

Charter brokers operate in a spot market. You call. They check availability. They give you a quote based on what the market looks like right now. Aircraft availability. Positioning costs. Demand. Crew scheduling. All of it shifts in real time.

So the quote you get today might not be the quote you get tomorrow. Same route. Different price. That’s how the market works.

For occasional flyers, that’s fine. You fly once or twice a year. You get a quote. You take it or leave it. No big deal.

But for business owners flying 30, 40, 50 times a year, that variability is a problem. Because you can’t budget for it. You can’t plan around it. Every trip is a negotiation. Every quote is a gamble.

And over the course of a year, that adds up. Not just in dollars. In mental overhead. In time spent managing quotes. In uncertainty.

That’s what Jet Cards eliminate. You trade flexibility for certainty. And for frequent flyers, that trade makes sense.

The shift happening right now

Here’s what’s changing. Business owners who’ve been flying charter for years are starting to do the math. And they’re realizing that the variability is costing them more than the membership model.

A Sydney-based CFO told us this last month. Flew charter for three years. Sydney to Melbourne, 35 times a year. Some trips cost $4,200. Some cost $6,800. Same route. Different quotes. Over the course of a year, the average was around $5,400 per flight.

He switched to an Airly Jet Card with a fixed hourly rate. Sydney to Melbourne became a known cost. Every flight. No variance. No surprises. He knows exactly what every trip will cost before he books it.

That’s the value. Not cheaper. Predictable.

And once you have predictability, you can plan. You can budget. You can build your travel into your business operations without wondering what the cost will be next quarter.

Why charter brokers are nervous

Charter brokers built their business on the spot market. Variable pricing. Negotiation. Access to inventory that shifts by the day. For decades, that’s been the only model.

But Jet Cards change the game. Because they take the most profitable customers: frequent flyers who generate consistent revenue and lock them into fixed-rate agreements.

That removes those customers from the spot market. Which means less demand. Which means less pricing power for brokers.

It’s not that charter is going away. It’s not. Charter still works for one-off trips, for routes Jet Card providers don’t cover, for travelers who value flexibility over predictability.

But for the segment of traveler’s who fly the same routes regularly such as, Sydney to Melbourne, Melbourne to Brisbane, Gold Coast runs etc, Jet Cards are becoming the default. Because the math makes sense. And the mental overhead disappears.

What a Jet Card actually gets you

When you buy an Airly Jet Card, here’s what you’re actually paying for:

Fixed hourly rates. Sydney to Melbourne is always the same price. Not variable quotes that change week to week. Just a locked-in rate. Every time.

No repositioning fees. The aircraft is where it needs to be. You’re not paying to move it into position. That cost is already built into the hourly rate.

Guaranteed availability. You’re not competing for inventory. The aircraft is assigned to your flight. The crew is scheduled. There’s no “sorry, nothing available.”

Concierge booking. Your EA or office manager books through the Airly app or concierge team. It takes minutes. Not hours of back-and-forth with brokers.

Fleet access. Light jets across the network. Citation Mustang. Phenom 100. Citation CJ2. 4–6 seats. Core routes covered.

That’s the offer. Predictability, transparency, and control. You’re not buying luxury. You’re buying infrastructure.

The decision point

If you’re flying once or twice a year, stick with charter. The membership model doesn’t make sense for you. The upfront cost doesn’t justify the frequency.

But if you’re flying 5–30 hours a year, if you’re on the same core routes, if you’re tired of quote roulette and repositioning surprises, then the Costco model starts to work.

At that frequency of flying, predictability has a dollar value. And certainty has a mental value. And the giving up flexibility in exchange for knowing exactly what every trip will cost, makes sense.

That’s the shift. From reactive booking to strategic planning. From variable pricing to fixed infrastructure. From treating private aviation as a luxury to treating it as a business tool.

Costco figured that out 40 years ago. Private aviation is figuring it out now.

If you’re starting to think about travel in terms of certainty rather than availability, a Jet Card might be worth understanding.

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