Thrive Aviation (TIV, Las Vegas Henderson) is launching a fractional ownership programme with HondaJet and Challenger 3500 aircraft in partnership with Arulean Air, a subsidiary of Honda Aircraft. The partnership includes a minority investment in Thrive Aviation's capital by Arulean Air.
"We're building another major piece of the Thrive platform and something we expect to scale for a long time," said Curtis Edenfield, co-founder and CEO of Thrive Aviation.
The programme includes the HondaJet in the light jet category, configured for up to five passengers and designed for regional missions, and the Challenger 3500 in the super-midsize segment, deployed on longer-range services with a cabin layout for up to nine passengers.
Thrive Aviation took delivery of the first two aircraft for the programme, including a Challenger 3500, and anticipates adding four to six HondaJets and two to four Challenger 3500s annually. The programme is expected to "scale significantly over the coming decade," the company said.
The aircraft will be acquired by Arulean Air and operated by Thrive Aviation. It remains unclear whether the aircraft are newly ordered or pre-owned units.
Fractional ownership represents a new model for Thrive Aviation, which further offers on-demand charter, aircraft management, jet card memberships, and maintenance services.
Thrive Aviation currently operates over 30 aircraft. The company's Part 135 certificate comprises 23 jets, including two Learjet 60XRs, a Challenger 604, a Challenger 605, a Citation M2, a Citation Jet 3+, four Citation Sovereign+ jets, four Citation Longitudes, a Falcon 900EX EASy, a Falcon 2000EX EASy, a Praetor 500, five G450s, and a GVII-G600.
