OWN THE JET

In this episode of Own the Jet, David Zipkin of Tradewind Aviation talks about why private flying is ultimately about saving time. He explains how a fleet of Pilatus PC-12s delivers efficiency, convenience, and access to destinations big jets can’t reach. From by-the-seat service on routes like Nantucket and St. Barts to the realities of ownership and charter offsets, David explains why it’s more important to choose an aircraft based on the mission you need it to fly rather than focusing on the model itself. By focusing first on the mission when making decisions, owners and flyers can choose the right aircraft for the job.

To learn more about Tradewind Aviation, visit https://www.flytradewind.com
Brought to you by: https://www.aspenaerogroup.com/
Produced by: https://www.savagemedia.com/

What is OWN THE JET?

OWN THE JET dives deep into the world of private jet ownership, operations, and the private aviation lifestyle. Whether you're purchasing your first jet, managing a growing fleet, or simply passionate about aviation, this podcast gives you insider access to the conversations happening behind the scenes.

We feature real owners, operators, and aviation leaders sharing their experiences, strategies, and lessons learned — from the flight deck to the boardroom.

OWN THE JET - the official podcast of Aspen Aero Group.

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And you see in social media and even some

advertising that they're not really

getting the message.

They're putting out there that it's about

showing off, it's about the Lambo next to

the airplane and so on.

But it's not that at all. Anyone in the

industry really knows that.

It is about saving time. It's about

facilitating their lifestyle.

Welcome to Own the Jet by Aspen Aero

Group, where we share perspectives from

some of the leading voices in private jet

ownership and business aviation.

I'm your host, Derek Savage, along with

my co-host, Jason Spoor,

president of Aspen Aero Group.

Our guest today is David

Zipkin from Tradewind Aviation.

Tradewind is a regional luxury airline

serving destinations on the East Coast

and all throughout the Caribbean with a

fleet of over 30 Pilatus PC-12s.

Join us as we dive deep into the

mechanics, mindset and moments that

define jet ownership.

And together, we'll learn

what it takes to own the jet.

David Zipkin, thank you so much for

joining us for Own the Jet.

David Zipkin is the COO of Tradewind.

Yep.

And Tradewind is a charter operator that

operates in the Caribbean all up and down

the East Coast and has been doing it for

a few years now, right?

Yeah, almost 25 years. We'll celebrate

our 25th next year. But

thank you for having me.

Yes.

David, what can you tell

me about running Tradewind?

The best way to start a business is by

identifying a problem to solve.

Absolutely.

So right around the time we were both

getting out of school, I did something

briefly in New York with the first dot

com boom, aging myself.

But soon after that, we decided, let's

look at the aviation landscape and we'll

see where's the biggest gap.

And it became pretty quickly evident that

the biggest gap that we saw was with

shorter distance and

medium to short distance flying.

You know, large jets, they're all there.

Net jets existed at the

time doing a very good job.

But for a large for a short flight, so

going out to Nantucket, let's say from

here in Westchester, it's really overkill

to fire up Gulf Stream to do that.

And so within the category of smaller

aircraft, it really

wasn't being done very well.

Older aircraft, single

pilot, piston powered.

And so there's this really big gap around

the same time or just before that, the

new single engine turbine

turboprops were coming of age.

And so we decided, let's go for it.

So let's let's do short distance travel

in the right aircraft, but without

compromise to the experience.

And so we bought a Cessna caravan.

We gutted the interior, put a private jet

interior inside, decided from the outset,

everything would be too

pilot, added in all of the

extras, the catering and this and that.

Yeah.

And off we went.

You know, we started with one aircraft

very quickly that turned into two around.

Still with the caravan.

Still with the caravan at the time.

We transitioned from

caravans to PC-12s around 2000.

Well, we started

operating PC-12s in 2003.

So pretty quickly afterwards.

But then full transition 2012.

What was that first route?

So first it was private charter, private

charter, anywhere you wanted to go.

Okay.

And out of this area, Westchester,

Greenwich and so on, a lot of people were

going out to Nantucket.

Yeah.

And it turned out we were flying quite a

bit there as a result.

And we were also flying a lot

of the same people regularly.

You know, sort of noticed

this pattern of commuting.

Yeah.

The other dynamic to it is

they weren't filling the plane.

You know, it was the bread earner going

back and forth to work while the family

spent the summer out in Nantucket,

Martha's Bay, Nardese, Hampton and so on.

Yeah.

In various ways, basically this group of

people who are chartering with us, they

came to us and said, you know, I don't

use the whole plane.

And I also know, you know, Joe and Susie

and Billy who also do the same thing.

Can we share a plane?

Yeah.

We said, sure.

As long as somebody's paying the bill.

Right.

And that became the beginning of what was

at that time a shared charter.

So we're really crowdsourcing it.

So I remember back in 01, 02, we were,

you know, we would put it out to the

group of people and say,

when would you like to fly?

You know, AOL instant

messenger back in the day.

Anyone can remember that.

Yeah.

And they would consult amongst each other

and, you know, in the banks

or whatever they were doing.

And they would come back and

say, we've decided on 5 p.m.

We'd say, great, that's

your scheduled flight.

They are selling by the seat.

Flash forward to today on our scheduled

routes, Nantucket, St.

Bart's, the Bahamas and so on.

We're flying, you know, 50, 60, 70

flights a day and Nantucket alone,

sometimes 40 flights a day.

So that really, really grew.

And I think where it really was a big win

for people is that it's the

private charter experience.

But you're only buying

one seat of that plane.

So private charter experience, meaning

we're using the private jet FBOs, very,

very simple valet, valet parts.

You can come.

You can arrive 20, 30

minutes before flight time.

No TSA.

No TSA.

And you just board and go.

And so it really became quite a big hit.

Nice, nice.

So, you know, talking about using the

right aircraft, using the

right plane for the job.

So before you were doing what you're what

you're doing here with Trade Win, it

sounds like you're either paying way too

much for way, way bigger of a plane to go

a short distance or you're having a

subpar experience because it's like an

older like piston plane, single pilot,

piston plane just just kind of sucks.

Just just to fly that.

So you're giving so the the opportunity

you saw was how can we get people like

that, that like jet experience like that

they like without it

costing like huge jet prices.

Right. And for many of our clients, they

actually do also fly in larger jets.

So it's not just a cost savings.

I can't afford the bigger thing, but it's

it's about being smart about it.

It's about using the

right tool for the job.

And so we see a

combination of that as well.

We actually have a brokerage arm of the

business where we'll sub out charters to

larger jet operators.

And a lot of it is the same same clients.

But they know that if I'm flying to

Nantucket, if I'm flying to the Hamptons,

it makes no sense to fire

up that that that big jet.

So can you talk about the

the aircraft that you guys use?

Yeah. So the Pilates PC-12 single engine

turboprop developed in the 90s, really

clean sheet design in the 90s.

Number one, it's

incredibly well engineered.

It's a Swiss built aircraft.

We had the opportunity to go visit the

factory in Stans,

Switzerland, right on the Ligemus air.

And we visited there because we had just

made a purchase of 20 aircraft.

And so they invited us in.

And for the first delivery, we were able

to push the pins in on the wings and

assembly, assembly one.

But we had a tour of the facility and

we've been to other manufacturing

facilities for other

other companies before.

And I'm not going to name names, but it

was a those were factories, you know, oil

on the ground, a lot of

yelling, a lot of screaming.

Sure. No, it's this was like you would

imagine building that Swiss watch.

You know, everyone is in

perfectly manicured outfits.

They have little earpieces to not not be

yelling at each other.

You could eat off the ground.

It's really an incredible organization.

They do a very good job. Are there it's

just that aircraft that you fly?

It is now. Yeah. Over the years, we've

operated many different types.

King Air's Caravans, as I mentioned, TBM,

citation jets, various

various versions of citation jets.

About six, seven years ago, we decided

that commonality is really important.

Sure. From an efficiency standpoint,

training, pilot training, maintenance

and also from a market standpoint, to be

really the expert in one

type is very, very important.

And we made that

transition. It's been it's been great.

It really has. How

many of those do you have?

We have we operate 32 Pilotuses now.

OK, sorry, 33 as of the company.

So I'm guessing you're a pretty big

customer for these guys.

We're close with them. Yeah.

So would you say you're

adding how many a year?

I don't know. Yes. Averaging three to

four a year, sometimes five.

Depends on the year. So

pilots, how many pilots?

A lot. Yeah.

We have about 120 pilots right now. Yeah.

And 350 in the

organization total, 350 employees.

OK, members. Wow.

And so quite a few pilots

in the ranks. Yeah. Yeah.

So with pilots, I'm going to kind of

diverge a little bit.

But of course, we're we're kind of in the

industry now where pilots are a shortage.

Yeah. And getting

pilots is somewhat taxing.

How are you dealing with that

or how are you working that?

Well, it depends on when you ask me.

OK, today, the the the pilot situation

has been quite good.

OK. Two years ago. Very

different story. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, it ebbs and

flows with lots of things.

But for us, it's really driven largely by

how quickly the airlines

or the larger private

jet operators are hiring.

So because we we are a very well known

now incubator for great pilots.

Yeah. They tend to be with

us earlier in their career.

And they get incredible experience,

turbine experience,

international experience.

High volume New York airspace,

challenging environment.

And so their resume looks great. Yeah.

And so if the airlines are hiring well

and they're hiring fast,

they're going to take

them more quickly. Yeah.

Help me understand what the difference is

between because you've described

the the the jets, the

aircraft that you you operate.

They're turboprops. Is that right?

They are. OK.

What for me, because I don't know what's

the difference between a turboprop

and just what you

would think of as a jet?

Oh, is it jet? Or well, I

guess is there a difference?

Essentially, it's it's it's the same

technology in the inside.

You know, it's it's it's turbine.

The propulsion in a turboprop is on the

outside and propulsion on a

on a turbo fan turbo

jet is on the inside.

And it's a common misconception.

People looking at planes and kind of

associating their safety with with

with with what they see. Right. Right.

And sometimes prop is a big turnoff, but

it's it's less about the prop showing

there than it is

what's powering it. Right.

And so the older props are piston

powered, which is like your car.

Internal combustion engine.

And those are less reliable.

Most piston aircraft, especially in the

commercial aviation space,

are twin piston aircraft for that reason.

But as soon as you move into turbine,

it's a whole different story.

The reliability is incredible.

And you get a lot more power.

As a result, you know, the plot is, for

example, we're flying.

It's a pressurized cabin as well.

So we're flying high and

we're flying relatively fast.

That creates an extra level of safety.

And of course, you're

getting there faster.

And the efficiency is incredible.

The efficiency is incredible.

And, you know, the other thing I should

note about the plot is that it has

incredible short field performance.

So not only is it the right tool for the

job on that shorter trip

from a kind of efficiency standpoint,

but it also can often get you

closer to where you're going.

So you have all of these little airports

all over the place that you can't land

the jet, right? Or a

jet of a certain size.

In case there's any jet.

And it it allows us to fly much closer.

A common conversation between our sales

folks and and, you know,

a new person inquiring about trade, when

common conversation is the person says,

well, I'd like to fly to,

you know, I'd like to fly to

Burlington, Vermont.

So the follow up question is,

where are you actually going?

Yeah, you may know that

there's an airport there,

but you may not know that

there are several around.

And it comes out in that example.

Let's say they're

going to Stowe, Vermont.

They're going skiing.

Well, there's a

little airport right there.

Because you can get we can get in that.

Yeah. Yeah. And it

saves them even more time.

And I saw that with East Hampton.

I was out there a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah. And, you know, shorter runway.

Yeah. But, you know, closer to Sake

Harbor, closer to these places.

And in that.

Yeah. And in that area, a

great example is Montauk.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So that's that's a

huge win for for people.

You know, ultimately, private

aviation is about saving time.

And, you know, there's no

such thing as a time machine,

but private aviation is

as close to it as it gets.

And so if we can save

the time on the front end,

but also in the getting closer to where

you're going, it's a huge win.

And it just is for sure.

A very appealing value. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. What are

some of the destinations?

I mean, I briefly, you know, as like the

Caribbean and East Coast,

what are some of the big destinations

that you guys like really,

really hit hard and

have a big presence in?

We're flying private charter

anywhere people want to go.

So the Northeast Nantucket, Maine,

Canada, out to Pennsylvania and so on,

scheduled to Nantucket and Martha's

Vineyard in the southeast out of Florida.

We again, private

charter, wherever you want to go,

scheduled routes out to the Bahamas,

North Aluthra and and Marsh Harbor.

And soon within the week or so, we'll be

announcing three more routes out

to the Bahamas and then

from our Puerto Rico operation,

we're flying to quite unique and really

high end destinations

like St. Bart's and Guilla,

Virgin Gorda, Tortola and Tiga.

And we're really in the Caribbean.

It's really a last mile sort of thing

where you're coming in

on either a private jet that can't go to

the smaller island, transferring to us.

Or you're coming in on the airlines and

then transferring out

to continue out there.

You guys are basically

like a Beach Boys song.

Like it's just all these islands.

We try to choose our destinations by

where we'd like to be.

Yes. How far south do you go?

So, you know, the Pilates is good.

Pilates has incredible range, but at some

point, you know, distance wise,

it starts to make sense, more make make

more sense to fly the jet.

But regionally within the Caribbean, if

we're talking about south

down to Mustique and St.

Vincent and so forth is a good hop

in terms of the sort of the outer edge of

distance from San Juan.

But we really specialize in that group of

islands in the eastern Caribbean,

just either west or east of Puerto Rico.

Nice. And Puerto Rico

is an excellent hub.

You have lots of airline service.

It's US territory, so very easy for the

let's say it's a private jet transfer

for the cruise situation

and overnights and so on.

And we can do a wing to wing.

So the big jet comes in.

We're lined up right next to passengers,

get off and on, no customs.

And they continue on their way.

So a lot of these destinations, I mean,

you're not going to find them

in some of the major airlines.

I mean, like like just

the runways and the end of.

I don't know, like you can't you can't

put a 737 in some of these places.

Right. A lot of these places. Right.

So so what's when you're talking about

people going to these destinations like

this is this is like the only way

to get there, right?

I mean, not the only way to get there.

I mean, yeah, you can own a jet.

But yeah, in some cases, the alternative

is a boat, you know.

Sure. Not not always the nicest or

quickest way to do things.

In some cases, it's a

drive to a ferry and so on.

And if you look at Nantucket, for

example, which is, you know,

we're in high, high season for our

Nantucket and Marsys Vineyard flying.

The group of people that were flying the

vast majority of them

have a home over there.

If you were to drive and take a ferry, I

mean, that kills a full day.

It's really hard to do a

weekend or even a long weekend.

And even with the airlines, you know, the

airlines do fly to a

place like Nantucket,

but you're still wasting two or three

hours for a 40 minute flight.

And that's just not a

good experience. Right.

And and, you know, I've had

clients say to me, you know,

I I wouldn't have bought the house in

Nantucket if it weren't for trade.

You know, it makes it feasible.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Makes a ton of sense.

So how often do you get

somebody booking a flight with you

where they have not flown in a in like a

small jet or like a private jet

or flown privately in the

way that you fly people?

How often do you see that where it's like

their first experience

with something like that? What kind of

reaction you get from? Yeah.

So I think a lot of the

misconceptions were put to rest.

You know, there are some people who can

afford it, but don't do it

because they may think

it's a flashy thing to do.

I'm not a private jet type of person.

But but once they do it, they really

realize it's not about that at all.

It's not about you.

They start coming up with like, like, OK,

wait, I can justify this.

I got time. Yeah. Yeah.

They bought me time.

And you see in social

media and even some advertising

that they're not really getting the

message they're putting out there

that it's it's about showing off.

It's about, you know, the Lambo next to

the airplane and so on.

But it's not that at all.

Anyone in the industry really knows that

it is about saving time.

It's about facilitating their lifestyle.

Yeah. Well, I think I think you hit on

something, though,

because on social media,

there is so much of like flexing on the

fact that you have a jet

or flexing on the fact that like, you

know, you're living this this lifestyle.

And to your point, it it

doesn't have to be that.

And I think there's there's there's a lot

of people that that have, you know,

it's almost like shame, right,

in wanting to do this. Right.

Where they're just like, I don't want to

be perceived that way.

I don't want to be looked at like, oh,

I'm I'm, you know, maybe I own a company.

I don't want everybody at this company to

feel like look at this, you know,

this dude flying around in a private jet.

But if this person that owns the company

can go close more deals

and grow the company and give people more

opportunity at that company

as a result of using this business tool

to conduct business.

Well, now you've got a great use case.

You know, when you think about when we

started the company,

we started it right after September 11th,

which seems like a strange time to start

an aviation company. Right.

But what we knew was that

the traditional aviation

airline experience was going to devolve.

And of course, it did

with security and so on.

You get tight.

And and once you put all

that friction in place,

it's just counterproductive, particularly

in my view for a short flight.

That's where you have the biggest wins.

Because again, like I mentioned, you

know, if you're flying on the airlines,

let's say New York, Boston, you're

spending more time in the airport

than you did in the air.

Yeah. And that's just yeah.

That's not productive.

And it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

It shouldn't it

shouldn't kill half your day.

It's a 40 minute flight.

It should take about an

hour and 15 minutes all in.

Maybe even an hour. Yeah.

And when you fly with

trade, when it does. Yes.

Exactly. Nice. That's a

that's a great selling point.

I think for people that are considering

jet ownership, though,

and they and maybe they haven't maybe

maybe that that whole perception

has kept them from, you

know, seriously considering it.

I'm looking at trade when

as a gateway drug. Right.

I'm looking at trade when is is like,

well, maybe I'll try this.

Maybe I'll experience what this is like

by by flying private with trade.

And do you find people doing that?

You find people like, hey,

I'm thinking about, you know,

using this as a business tool or

upgrading the way that I travel. Right.

And and using trade when as a way to like

test the waters with. Mm hmm.

We do. We do see that quite often.

We also see people fly with us in the PC

12 or the Pilates PC 12.

And then think that maybe a bigger jet is

the way to go for that sort of migration.

But then they come back and they

ultimately, as I as I mentioned before,

it's about using the

right tool for the job. Yeah.

You know, of course, if you're flying to

Florida, light jet, medium jet, great.

If you're flying to California, you're

flying out to transatlantic.

Big, big cabin jet makes a lot of sense.

But if you're doing that

short hop, and if it's, you know,

Florida to the Bahamas or inter Florida

or here up to Vermont,

using the right tool is important.

So it's it's less about that kind of

laddering up to a fancier thing.

Yes, it is using the right tool for the

job and they'll do both.

You know, sometimes it's the PC 12.

Sometimes it's the jet if

they need to go further.

Yeah. Yeah. Once they once they

experience what that's like, though, it

becomes easier to say, OK, well,

what is this really

going to look like for me?

If I get the numbers do

get bigger, of course.

The plot is, as you mentioned, is

incredibly efficient.

You know, we have

eight seats on the Pilates.

If you fill up that plane, you're talking

about an hour flight

for sub 1000 per person.

So how long of a you're

saying a short hop, right?

So what's considered a short hop?

I'm thinking 200, 300 miles or sub.

Is that most of your routes or that?

Most of our routes are around 200 miles.

The plot is still very good.

And we do private

charters, three, 350 miles.

Toronto from New York

is a common route for us.

And that's about that's about three

hundred and twenty, something like that.

So it's still a very

good aircraft for that.

But, you know, it's

fast for a prop plane.

We cruise it close to 300 knots.

But it's not jet speeds.

And so even though a jet is more

expensive, at some distance, those two

lines cross where the

jet makes more sense.

And that, I think, you know, depending on

the aircraft, happens

around five, 500 miles.

Nice, nice. Now, do people go out and buy

these Pilates as well?

I mean, is that like a popular I don't.

Jason, this might be something you can

weigh in on, too, because you

see things from other things.

Yeah, it's a it's a

great utilitarian airplane.

It's like you said, it's it's it's a

great aircraft we manage.

So we operate, as I

mentioned, 33 aircraft.

Five of those aircraft

are managed aircraft.

So someone else bought it,

put it on management with us.

And it's basically turnkey.

So we provide the pilots, the

maintenance, the hangars, all of the

administrative back

office support, in some cases,

help with the transaction

and finding the right airplane.

Right. And that works out quite well,

especially for the owners who also want

to do charter revenue.

So we'll charter that aircraft when

they're not using it.

Just like a vacation home to

to kind of offset the cost.

Yeah. So do you run those

airplanes in your system?

We do. OK, we do.

Another benefit to having such a large,

large fleet is that if if they put that

aircraft within our charter program,

if it's busy, for example, then we have

another airplane for them.

So there's interchangeability.

Yeah. Again, going back to the

commonality of fleet.

Really helps with that.

Yeah. And so so running this so

in regards to FAA regulations.

So you're running

this how we are part 135.

Yeah, which is for private charter.

And we are part 135 commuter, which is

for scheduled flights.

OK, for nine or fewer

seat scheduled flights. Yeah.

So we operate under

that scheduled authority.

But overall, private private charter 135.

It's a tough business for sure.

You know, especially, you know, if you

own the assets as we do,

utilization is everything.

Well, that was going to

be your commercial officer.

It's your job to get

butts and seats, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Like if I see a trade wind plane

out there, it means I'm not doing my job.

It should be in the

air. Yeah, that's right.

It's making money.

What are some of the things?

I mean, what are what are your big

challenges like trying to

trying to make that happen?

I would say the biggest challenge is

seasonality of demand.

OK. A lot of our places that we fly are

like, say, let's say

Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, East

Hampton, very popular in the summer.

No one's going there in the winter.

All right. Right.

So what we do is we

move that fleet around.

We flex that fleet around depending on

where that high season is.

So the Caribbean is very, very busy from,

you know, Thanksgiving

through through Easter usually.

And so that's one of the reasons why

we're down there is

to balance that sort of

counterbalance the

seasonality of the demand.

But we still have shoulder seasons like

September and October.

I think most operators have have kind of

a problem there of underutilization.

So the biggest challenge is really

finding as many routes or

types of business where the

where the demand is is more consistent

throughout the year

or in a perfect world,

you know, higher when the other areas are

lower and then cost of operations.

You know, it takes a village to do this.

You know, we have three hundred and three

hundred fifty people almost for for

thirty three airplanes

and one hundred and twenty

pilots to make the business work.

The aircraft really has to be flying not

just one flight per day, revenue flight

per day, but three, four or five.

And so that's you know, that's that's

more challenging from

the scheduling standpoint,

more challenging from from from a

commercial standpoint as well.

I always say that I'm sometimes jealous

of the big jet operators because one

flight a day is perfectly fine for them

because the numbers

are bigger. Right. Right.

But for us, it's not.

Well, I guess that leads

to the next question, then.

Is there is there a

more opportunity to scale?

I mean, are we looking at going going

coast to coast to

trade wind at some point?

Is there is there a

westward westward hill?

Why western or east or east?

You know, I think the short answer is

anywhere where we can

solve that problem for people,

that friction and short distance or

inefficiency and short distance flying.

Yeah. Is a marketplace.

You know, there there are and there are

those examples all over all over the

country, all over the world.

Yeah. You know, if you look at, you know,

let's say Boston, New

York or Tampa, Miami,

it's a terribly inefficient way to do it.

And I'm a big airliner. So they offer it.

But the way we do it would really add a

ton of value and be be

be very different from

primarily the the the the time saving

standpoint and also just

much higher level of service.

So you see that all over the place up and

down the California coast.

Vegas, California.

There are some operators doing that sort

of thing within Europe.

There's a lot of opportunity because the

distances tend to be shorter.

Yeah. Yeah. And so I guess

the limit to be easy about it.

Yeah. Yeah.

But again, you know, we're very careful

about how quickly we grow.

You're in an industry where, you know,

there there are things that

can affect profitability that,

you know, you don't necessarily have

direct control over and you kind of have

to like roll with the punches on things.

Right. I mean, we've got

fuel prices are increasing.

Just just basic operational

costs, you know, inflation.

You know, tariffs. Yeah. Yeah.

Can you talk about some of that and how

you guys are handling it?

Yes. The short answer is yes.

There are a lot of uncontrolled

controlled items in our cost structure.

Even ground fees, FBO fees, a lot of

consolidation in the FBO world where

pricing is now going up quite a bit.

Fuel is always an unknown and we're

buying a lot of parts.

And so part of the reason, by the way,

that we did a big deal with Pilatus,

where we're buying direct from right now,

is to really shore up

those supply chains.

So because from a speed standpoint, we

need parts when we need them.

And it's and it's better to be working in

some cases directly with them.

But the cost can change quite a bit.

You know, our costs do go up quite a bit,

even tariffs aside every year.

How much of that can be absorbed into

pricing into the marketplace?

Is anyone's guess, you know, you can't

you can't move too fast in that way.

So if I if I wanted to visit one of these

beautiful Caribbean

islands that you fly to

or if I wanted to go to Martha's Vineyard

or, you know, some of

these other destinations,

what's the best way to

book a flight with Tradewind?

Either calling us and or a website, start

with the website, flytradewind.com.

On there, you can create a private

charter inquiry and our team

gets back to you right away.

Discusses your trip.

Make sure it's the right tool for the

job, the right airports, etc., etc.

And then go from there.

On the scheduled side of our business, we

consider ourselves the anti airline.

So for an airline, it's impossible to get

someone on the phone.

Yes.

We're available.

And so if you have a quite a few.

I'm going to speak to

somebody here or not.

And you're going to speak with someone

here in Connecticut.

Yeah.

And so if you have a question about

what's the experience like,

what do I put my car, etc.,

that's what we're there for.

Yeah.

So, you know, if you've done it before

and you know the drill, book it online.

But if you have any questions, that's

what our team is there for.

That's awesome.

Nice.

Nice.

And I'll link to everything.

We'll have links in the description of

the show and we'll make sure everybody

knows where to go to book.

Okay.

I'm kind of thinking we should go to

Stewart and end up in St.

Mark's.

Okay.

You should go try that.

Just to see.

You can go to the bottom of it there or.

Just have the experience so we can speak.

I don't know if

you're joking or not, man.

No, I really think we should.

I think we should.

We really want to know

trade when flying to St.

Mark's with us.

Yeah.

Okay.

We'll see.

I think we should do it.

Next podcast from St.

Mark's.

Oh, there you go.

Now, now it's a...

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I'm sold.

Let's do it.

Let's make it happen.

Is there anything before we...

because we're pretty much in time, but

before we take off...

Another aviation.

We're going today.

Right.

Right.

Before we get on that flight, what would

you say to somebody who is considering

owning a jet that maybe they haven't

thought of or something that would be,

you know, some good words of wisdom for

somebody that's

thinking about owning a jet?

Every jet is different, you know,

different economics, different use case.

You know, some have

more range than others.

Some burn more fuel than others.

Really speaking with

someone who knows their stuff.

I mean, it seems obvious, obviously, but

and preferably someone who has experience

with that type of aircraft.

What you don't want is just because,

like, if someone calls us, if we're going

to manage the plane, it's a Pilatus, but

we're not in the business of selling them

into a Pilatus if that plane

doesn't make sense for them.

So so really that neutral view on what is

your mission and let's find find the

right aircraft for it and really be kind

of honest about what you

expect for cost for sure.

You know, there's really no such thing as

making money on a jet, even if you put it

out into the charter marketplace, it

makes it hurt a lot less.

But just being prepared for all of that

and understanding and working with an

organization that can can lay out all

those options for them.

Right.

Nice.

Like yours.

Yes.

Awesome.

Thank you.

I love it.

David Zipkin from Tradewind.

Thank you so much for

being on Own the Jet.

We look forward to flying with you soon.

Sounds like and yeah, maybe next time

next time we talk to David, it's going to

be at a Tradewind location.

That would be great.

Come on down.

We've got flights tomorrow.

Yeah, awesome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

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