When someone is accustomed to having the best of everything, how do you exceed their expectations? This is the question I was forced to consider recently at 41,000 feet on a Gulfstream G650, as I drank Chablis and gazed out of the expansive oval windows that are a trademark of this small but mighty private aircraft. Because it is exactly what my hosts, the fractional jet ownership company Flexjet, is trying to do. Flexjet is not the biggest company in its market. That honour goes to Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets, which has a fleet of more than 1,000 planes that flew a cumulative 600,000-plus hours in 2023.
Flexjet is around a third of the size, with 300 aircraft and 205,000 hours of flight time. But its chairman, Kenn Ricci, hopes it can convince more and more time-poor, cash-rich customers that it is the best.
The firm’s global team of 130-plus cabin servers receive training at a special academy on the ground at Farnborough and at The Dorchester in London. They are given ‘masterclasses’ in sushi presentation, floristry, mixology and just about anything else that might help to meet the whims of a UHNW client base in a competitive aviation market.
[See also: ]Four Seasons private jet opens to charter bookings for first time]
A collaboration of dreams
But a perfectly presented nigiri isn’t enough to secure the long-term future of a business by itself. Which brings me to the reason for the trip. We are winging our way to Venice and the city’s annual boat show, Salone Nautico Venezia, to see Ricci unveil a ‘strategic partnership’ with one of the standout players of the nautical festival: Ferretti.
The tie-up will see each firm offer some considerable perks to customers of the other – as a thank you for being a loyal client, but also, you suspect, with the intention of creating some profitable cross-pollination.
The customers of Flexjet and Ferretti will enjoy access to shared ‘curated events’ at major boat shows and other HNW honeypots.
Content from our partners
[See also: Best aviation and yacht finance advisers in 2024]
On the ground in Venice – or, rather, several floors above it – I get an early taster of one of these at a dinner on a terrace atop the Gritti Palace hotel. This vantage point, on a 14th-century palazzo where Tom Cruise stayed while filming scenes for the seventh Mission: Impossible film in 2020, is the place to be in the city at this very moment, with views of the Grand Canal that tourists on the overpriced gondolas below can only dream of. It seems a shame to waste it on grubby journalists like me, but someone’s got to spread the word. ‘Imagine we do that with three or four plane customers,’ Ricci says.
Meanwhile, ‘selected’ Ferretti customers will benefit from Flexjet flights, service and access to its own terminals at ‘key milestone moments’, for example, when visiting their yacht as it is being built at the Ferretti shipyard, or upon its delivery.
On board Ferretti’s new gleaming Navetta 38, also unveiled at the Venice boat show, Ricci tells me that the relationship between the two brands, and with their respective client bases, is not just a case of quid pro quo.
Building trust
‘Europe is relationships,’ the Italian-American tells me with an easy smile. ‘The number one thing about this is to build trust.’
[See also: Emission statement: How private jets are moving towards cleaner aviation fuel]
Between Ricci and Ferretti CEO Alberto Galassi, that trust clearly already exists. They have known one another for about 25 years and, judging from their warm banter and shared jokes at the photocall for the signing of the partnership deal, are good friends.
‘Mr Ricci is an Italian-origin American citizen. I am Italian,’ Galassi tells me afterwards. ‘I think we have a special touch, and a bit of Italian taste. I know Mr Ricci, I know the taste he has, the commitment he gives to the customers. Our reward is the happiness of our clients when they text us to say they’re happy with the experience on board. It’s a combination of two incredible customer bases that meet each other, have the same needs, [and] like the same things.
‘The other shipyards don’t think about this,’ Galassi adds. ‘What is driving this partnership is: what can we give more to our clients that others can’t?’
Ricci tells me that Flexjet ‘didn’t really see the merits’ of partnerships with other brands at first. But his scepticism was lifted by a collaboration with Bentley.
[See also: Best aviation and yacht lawyers 2024]
‘When we started [plane viewings] with a car, the amount of people that came increased significantly – people want to see what else they can have,’ he says. ‘That got us thinking about other luxury partnerships, and that’s when Alberto and I started talking.’
For the Bentley tie-up, Flexjet designed the interiors of two of its Gulfstream G650 aircraft in an homage to the carmaker’s Bacalar. With the partnership with Ferretti, there are talks of designing a plane interior inspired by one of Ferretti’s most famous brands, Riva. (The decor on board this Navetta 38 was designed with the help of Galassi’s wife, Antonella Ferrari, who is the granddaughter of Enzo Ferrari.)
Rebuilding a brand
For Galassi, the partnership comes at a good time. He has been on his own journey to turn around the shipmaker’s fortunes since he became CEO in 2014. ‘The group was starving. Now it’s super-solid, and wealthy, and appreciated.’ As well as listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2022, he says the business is debt-free and has ample funds to make new investments. ‘We can offer [clients] the possibility of getting to know a family of yacht builders, with seven brands. Among the seven, three of them are the most famous in the world.’
Not content with this corporate turnaround, Galassi wants to ramp things up further. ‘Last year in December, we had a friend of mine, one of the best performers on earth – Elton John. He stopped his farewell tour in July in Sweden, and he played for us in December. Come on. When you can offer such an opportunity that money can’t buy, because it’s driven by charity and friendship, this is what we’re giving to our clients.’
This feature was first published in Spear’s Magazine Issue 92. Click here to subscribe
