Private Jet Companies Look to Expand Las Vegas Presence with Casino Customers
NV – Officials with the growing private airline industry see their sleek jets as the eventual replacement to casino company corporate jets that fly big-spending customers to the Strip. It’s already happening on a small scale. On many weekends, limousine drivers working for Strip resorts – instead of waiting in the Harry Reid International Airport baggage claim area holding a sign with a customer’s name – park their vehicles in front of private airline terminals located along the western side of the airport, far from the main passenger terminals. The casino’s customers are picked up for a quick drive down Las Vegas Boulevard to their awaiting destination.
Private airlines save time for passengers eager to reach the blackjack tables or make restaurant reservations. Federal guidelines also allow passengers to avoid TSA security lines or baggage claims because their luggage waits on the tarmac when they disembark. As a result, they may pay a little more than a commercial flight, but not the exorbitant amounts typically associated with private jets, and officials from the airlines say the flexibility is worth the cost.
Executives said they have been in talks with gaming companies about ferrying their customers, but agreements haven’t been formalized. “With all the big events coming to Las Vegas this year, we’ve had a few private discussions about partnership opportunities,” said Tom Smith, CEO of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Set Jet. Ben Kaufman, director of marketing for Dallas-based JSX, said the airline has “great relationships” with several Strip properties. “Those relationships are always ever-changing and evolving, but we have regular communication,” Kaufman said.
Travel industry expert Scott Mayerowitz, the travel industry news website The Points Guy’s executive editor, said Las Vegas is the latest target for private airline companies. While many casino companies still operate their own corporate jets, Mayerowitz said private airline operators such as JSX and Set Jet offer the gaming companies a more economically feasible way to shuttle customers. “The idea of bringing one high roller over on a jumbo jet doesn’t make economic sense anymore,” Mayerowitz said, calling the private jet industry “a really creative way for the casino companies to still treat their best gamblers like royalty, but to do it at a much more efficient cost.” Spokesmen for several Strip casino operators said their companies still operate their own aircraft and decline to comment on the private airline industry.
In the short term, Las Vegas is a key market for the corporate jet industry because leisure travelers are starting to become dismayed by the commercial airline industry. On a national scale, Mayerowitz said regional airlines had cut service to some leisure destinations. There are also not enough pilots for the industry. He said four airlines – Southwest, American, Delta, and United – “control 80 percent of the flights.” He added that a proposed merger between Jet Blue and Spirit would reduce customer choice, further pushing air travelers to seek other options.
After the post-Christmas meltdown by Southwest Airlines that delayed or canceled thousands of flights nationwide and disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of travelers, the private airline operators found a new audience of interested customers. “We saw a 100 percent increase in our web search traffic,” Smith said.
In anticipation of a bigger consumer market, Set Jet broke ground in December on a 2,500-square-foot terminal adjacent to its temporary space in Las Vegas in the Atlantic Aviation facility. The private terminal is on the airport grounds at the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Koval Lane. Smith said the 3-year-old company plans to base two planes out of Las Vegas, which would grow the airline’s total number of annual passengers to a volume matching the company’s Scottsdale hub that serviced 8,500 customers in 2022. Last year, Set Jet flew 1,500 passengers to and from Las Vegas through the Atlantic Aviation terminal.