Wheels Up Founder Launches Bespoke Charter Company

Business aviation entrepreneur Kenny Dichter returned to the annual BACE convention to highlight his next chapter as the founder of Real Jet. He is re-entering the charter broker realm—this time with a boutique approach that focuses on top-tier service. Dichter likened the new venture to  brands Four Seasons or Burgess Yachts—long-standing companies with strong reputations for high-end, white glove service that are not asset-based.

Announced earlier this year, the corporate entity is headquartered in New York with the operational base in Atlanta. Launching operations in August, Real Jet already has about 30 people on staff and has thus far arranged approximately 100 flights.

Real Jet builds on relationships that Dichter and his colleagues have established over the years. The company was started with several of Dichter's colleagues from Wheels Up and Marquis Jet. The company is led by president Robert Withers, who has long worked with Dichter both as a co-founder of Wheels Up and at Marquis Jet—“a 40-year friend and a 20-plus year partner.”

“We’re really fortunate to have 12 or 15 people that joined us from our past lives,” Dichter said. Withers, he added, has “tremendous good faith and credit with the operating community.”

Real Jet is offering a straight brokerage without jet cards, membership, or other fee-based requirements for service. However, it is building a Real SLX platform that creates an “ecosystem,” with hospitality, unique experiences, and other curated benefits, in addition to private aircraft options.

Real Jet differs from the past two companies Dichter founded: Wheels Up, a multi-faceted operator and broker that aimed to democratize the business with broad growth, and Marquis Jet, which pioneered jet cards.  Wheels Up ultimately went public with Delta Air Lines becoming the largest shareowner, and fractional ownership provider NetJets acquired Marquis Jets.

But unlike Wheels Up, which became a billion dollar-plus operator, Dichter's vision for Real Jets over the next three to five years is to grow it into a $500 million to $750 million company with a customer base of 5,000 to 10,000 people. The company plans to limit its charter placements to the top 200 or so operators, ones that Real Jet executives know and have vetted, particularly on the safety front.  But Dichter noted that many of the operators have long worked with the Real Jet team in their past roles. 

As far as service, Dichter said he’s taken lessons learned from the likes of fractional ownership pioneer Richard Santulli, the former NetJets chief who sold his service and then ultimately the entire company to Warren Buffett.

At Wheels Up and Marquis Jet, Dichter had departed the company in 2023 as it was amid a reorganization and shoring up its debt. He noted the ongoing integration with Delta and said, “Both Robert and I are very proud of where Wheels Up is, but with Real Jet, there's an amazing niche—a boutique play in the market.”

Pointing to Burgess, Dichter said that it has a 360-degree view of the customer. With Wheels Up, “I think about the 2 million takeoffs and 2 million landings; I think about the over $10 billion of sales we created [over 20-plus years in the industry] and, in a lot of cases, new people to the industry, and I think about our retention rate of 90%. We have a high bar, but our new structure is where we are trying to have an incredible customer experience.”

He explained this means customers remain at the center with full transparency and extensive communications.