Partners in Aviation has launched its principal offering, a comprehensive private jet joint ownership program called PIA Co-Ownership. Founded in April 2016 by industry veterans Mark Molloy and Tom Bertels, with offices in Chicago and Kansas City, the company matches two prospective owners with low-to-medium usage requirements, based in the same geographical area, and enables them to share the ownership and operating costs of a new or late-model aircraft, reducing the individual costs considerably.
PIA Co-Ownership has been devised with the help of top aviation experts in legal, tax, management and maintenance issues to overcome many of the associated risks and challenges that such an ownership arrangement may lead to. The program will have wide appeal, from single-aircraft turboprop to multiple jet-fleet operators, as well as those considering private jet ownership for the first time.
Mark Molloy said that the idea came after many years of seeing customers purchase older or less-capable aircraft, as they could not justify the expenditure on something new. This is where the partnership comes in: “We fill the gap between fractional and sole ownership, no matter what class of business aircraft an operator requires. Despite the considerable economic benefits of a partnership, wisely, most operators would never have considered it. Our challenge was to structure a co-ownership program that conservative operators – and their legal counsel – would embrace.”
