Startup seeks regular luxury air service between Napa Valley and Orange County

A Southern California semi-private airline is betting that many high-net-worth households in Orange County, with one of the nation’s largest concentrations of millionaires, will want to hop a direct flight to enjoy Napa Valley’s wineries, hotels and restaurants.

JSX, formerly JetSuiteX, has operated a “Napa Valley” flight between Burbank and Concord in the East Bay for about two years as well as a daily route connecting Oakland and Orange for around a year.

But the carrier, which offers a private jet experience that can be booked like a conventional airline ticket, is eyeing new connection to Napa County Airport.

JSX and other its other partner in the venture — J3 Jet — recently answered a now closed Napa County request for proposals to establish a second private-jet terminal at the county airport. County officials would not provide information on other applications.

“Because we are still in the review stage and our process is not complete, I am unable to provide any information or details about the number of respondents,” Leigh Sharp, deputy public works director for general services, wrote in an email.

If successful with its bid, the JSX venture plans to invest over $20 million during the long-term ground lease, including $12 million during the “pioneering period” to get the fixed-base operation running — fueling services, training, acquiring equipment — and build a passenger terminal. Should it be granted a county lease, J3 Jet plans to start ground operations within 30 days to accommodate JSX flights.

“We’re anticipating this being very successful, and we’re willing to invest the dollars,”said Joe Daichendt, CEO of J3 Jet.

He is a recreational pilot and former real estate professional who was involved with project entitlements and would be general manager of the Napa FBO for at least the first year.

Also part of the J3 Jet team are Will “Wine Guy” Blackmon, a Super Bowl champion with sommelier certifications and Napa Valley connections, and Doug Wilson, head of operations and an FBO business consultant.

FBOs are businesses that run private terminals at an airport to provide services such as aircraft fueling, maintenance and management (including chartering, crew training, and buying and selling).

The existing FBO at Napa County Airport is Napa Jet Center, which started as Bridgeford Flying Service at the airport just after World War II. Houston-based Lynx FBO Network acquired it in June 2018.

Daichendt envisions the flight from Orange County to be a much-needed shot in the arm for Napa Valley’s hotels.

With the virus-inspired shutdown, occupancy rates dropped to about 10% early in the pandemic, and much of that discounted for first responders. Restaurants and wineries have seen indoor services closed to visitors twice so far.

Orange County’s 116,000 millionaire households ranks it, according to CNN/Money, just behind Los Angeles County and Chicago suburb Cook County as the nation’s third highest concentration. That potential helped convince JSX that the new route was worth the risk.

“Napa County was not originally on our list of viable service markets for JSX,” founder and CEO Alex Wilcox said in a statement. “Though we would love to offer air service to a number of underserved communities, the decision for us must be pragmatic, and driven by the economics.”

Napa Valley’s tourism numbers and spending levels are appealing, Daichendt said. The county in 2018 welcomed 3.85 million visitors who spent $2.23 billion, and 70% of those dollars came from guests at local hotels, according to Visit Napa Valley’s latest research. And over 70% of valley visitors flew into San Francisco, with 10% landing in Oakland and 6.6% in Sacramento.

The spending trends of the overnighters, who make up 35.5% of the visitors, are what the air-service developers are looking at. Of them, 80.7% stay in hotels and spend an average of $446 daily per person, compared with $170 for day-trippers.

JSX, the air service partner of J3 Jet, describes itself as a “hop-on jet service,” in which tickets can be purchased through its website in a similar fashion to airfares on commercial airlines.

Its fleet of Embraer EMB 135 and EMB 145 regional jets have reconfigured seating from the 50-60 design to 30 first-class-style seats, with 3 feet of legroom. The company also has routes to Phoenix and Las Vegas from Burbank and to Seattle’s Boeing Field from Las Vegas.

Tickets for the Orange–Napa flight are currently estimated to be $99 each way. Other tickets on JSX start at $89 each way.

Napa County put out the RFP for a second FBO in August 2019, with the intent “to improve and expend services, as well as to increase competition on the airfield, benefiting all users of the Airport.” Japan Airlines and other international pilot training companies used the airport for jumbo jet instruction starting in 1971, with Japan Airlines pulling out in 2010 during bankruptcy. The last tenant in that space was International Airline Training Academy.

The timeline for the RFP has been delayed a few months because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Sharp. The proposal period closed July 17, and the county anticipates a couple of months of review, scoring, potential interviews and negotiations before taking recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. That’s expected to happen this fall, she told the Business Journal.

Jeff Quackenbush (jquackenbush@busjrnl.com, 707-521-4256) covers wine, construction and real estate.