Guard is right. The strength of the franchise is that the King Air runs about a grand less an hour than the jets. It is not a fractional in that it does not require a large outlay to "join the club." WheelsUp is all 135, not 91K.
WheelsUp is targeting a more dollar conscious customer, but the good news is that there are many more of them. When you get into the big cabin airplanes you are competing over a much smaller customer base.
Netjets was originally conceived to attract small company's that didn't think they could afford to operate their own aircraft. Instead of buying a complete airplane you could buy a share of one. Wheels up is a membership organization, you can even buy a membership at Costco.
Wheels Up Memberships Available From Costco | Jet Charter News Alerts, Broker-Operator Directory ? FlightList PRO
Here is the basic cost breakdown. [Membership regular price for individuals is $17,500 annually and corporations $29,500 annually according to
Corporate Jet Investor. Annual dues (starting second year) are then $8,500 for individuals and $14,500 for corporations, plus a fixed hourly price for each hour flown – the cost per hour of getting on the King Air is $4,295 per hour and the Citation Excel/XLS is $7,495 per hour according to a report from the private aviation industry resource.]
The WheelsUp model is much closer to the "Marquis Card" model. That's no coincidence as WheelsUp CEO Kenny Dicther invented the concept. It was so successful that NetJets bought it.
Marquis Jet Card | The Black Card | Centurion Card | Visa Black Card | Luxury Credit Cards
WheelsUp is attracting the lower end of the market but it is a much larger market to begin with.