A BLUE STAR IS BORN

Todd Rome's Blue Star Jets is bringing the jet-set life to the masses,
and the competition couldn't be happier.

When Todd Rome worked on Wall Street, he knew a thing or two about being diverse - stocks, bonds, hedge funds. So in 2000, when Rome saw a need for private air charter service for upscale clientele looking to skip airport security lines as muddled as the stock exchange floor, he opened an office in New York and applied his past successes in diversity to amassing a fleet of aircraft - Falcons, Gulfstreams, Learjets, Citations, helicopters and more. He even named the company after the fictional airline in his favorite movie, Wall Street: Blue Star Jets.

"The concept originally was to make flying private more affordable for the younger generation," states Rome, 34, whose rhetoric is so succinct and convincing he could be addressing a political rally. "Years ago it was only the rock stars who got to fly charter and we thought it would be great to make available to small and medium size companies as well as young families." However, until those young families find a lost Jackson Pollock in their basements, Blue Star Jets will have to live with its current clientele: "rock stars, politicians, billionaires, small companies, medium companies and Fortune 500 conglomerates."

Rome is now the young prodigy of this $3-billion industry. Blue Star Jets succeeds by offering private charter for sometimes half as much as the competition, and it does so by minimizing overhead: there is not a single hangar or helipad in sight. The company is essentially a brokerage firm that buys free space from other private jet companies, and with a BlueStarJets SkyCard, which acts like a jet-set debit (the cards range from $50,000 to $1,000,000), members have the freedom and flexibility to fill those availabilities at a moment's notice. BSJ's supplementary services include limousines for ground transportation, gourmet catering, helicopter transfer and your own personal aviation consultant. "Our clients are used to first class everything," says Rome. "Not just service, but first class catering, first class ground transportation. In New York, we're even seeing clients who take helicopter trips to the jet. We have a lot of people that are coming out of a major city with a lot of congestion. They want to take a helicopter to the jet to avoid ground delay." This is a dynamic divergence from traditional fractional ownership, the alternative to private charter, in which you and your company owns a portion of the plane.

"Fractional ownership was brilliant in the late '80s when it was first conceived, but in the year 2003 it's a dinosaur," Rome says. "Most people in my generation, in their '30s and "40s, they don't want to pay maintenance fees. They want to fly like they own it and pay like they don't. One of our slogans says it all:'Why buy a fraction of a jet when Blue Star Jets will sell you the whole fleet?" The company has access to 1,400 planes, promising they can deliver a jet inside four hours anywhere in the world - from Dallas to Dubai. Access to 5,000 airports, as opposed to the 500 available for commercial flights, only helps the cause. This is what allows Blue Star Jets to stand behind its other slogan: "Any Jet, Any Time, Any Place."

As if sensing a sway vote election day, Rome proudly interjects when questioned about company growth. "Our company is up 400 percent from last summer to this summer" boasts Rome, a staggering statement for a company still in its infancy. "I know that's a bold number, but we attribute it to safety, security, price and as the company grows, there's more brand awareness."

Rome's branding and marketing savvy has aided in the growth of Blue Star Jets. When asked about business partnerships, he rattles off a list as if reading from a VIP's Palm Pilot:"Ocean Club Resort in the Bahamas, Fisher Island, Canyon Ranch,, one of the leading spas in the world, Vacation.com and Douglas Elliman, a premier real estate company here in New York". Other joint ventures include Classic Custom Vacations, which will create travel packages with private jet service to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico and Europe, and Barneys, which offers all BSJ clients that purchase a SkyCard valued at $100,000 or more a gift card to Barney's New York.

Rome who splits time between Manhattan and Fisher Island (plus the requisite retreat in the Hamptons) is most excited about how the company's exponential growth led to its new 10,000-square foot facility in Boca Raton's Mizner Park. One major contributor to creating a southern headquarters is that New York to Florida is "a big fly for us", says Rome, adding that its the company's busiest domestic leg (a Miami to New York round trip with Blue Star Jets is quoted at $13,661). "The people in Florida like to travel when the snowbirds come down", he adds. "A lot of them go to the Caribbean, to Aspen, Telluride, Vail. But we're also seeing a lot of people that live in those cold spots that want to go to Florida when the crowd comes to them."

Although BSJ's new office, now one of 15 worldwide, is centered in one of the most affluent regions in the world, Rome isn't relying on the local zip code. "Where South Florida has been big for us is Latin America," Rome says. "There is a huge, huge amount of people, private jet-set type crowd, that want to fly from South America to Miami or even up to New York, and we had to be in the mecca for that, and that's Miami, Boca Raton and Palm Beach." Rome adds that BSJ will be opening additional offices in Florida, namely Miami, Palm Beach and Naples.

Interestingly, even smaller companies look for a fraction of the action - Cincinnati-based Delta AirElite, PrivateAir in Switzerland - and big-timers like Warren Buffett's NetJets sits atop countless capital to keep company profile soaring, the competition is rallying for each other. PrivateAir, which according to its website is "a leading international business aviation group" headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland is one such industry cheerleader. Greg Thomas, CEO of PrivateAir, has only good things to say when prodded about his fierce competition.

With Blue Star Jets, it's not surprising that they have seen that kind of growth. They've been very successful in marketing their product," Thomas says from his office abroad, a uniquely European police siren wailing in the background. PrivateAir began with a Boeing 737 in 1979, offering private air charter to "kings, queens, and rock stars." These days, the company, which also has an office in West Palm Beach, holds a fleet of 50 planes - from Citation to Boeing. But what about the opposition, what about the fly-boy-fist-to-cuffs? "yes, there's competition, but on any given day, Blue Star Jets will call us to find planes and we'll call them to find planes. I can't tell you how many referrals we've given to other companies," Thomas says. The AvJet Corporation, a full-service aviation group in California, even publishes The Air Charter Guide, listing 500 private charter companies worldwide as a "backup" to the seemingly inevitable cancellations and delays of scheduled airlines." It is this merger of supposed rival entities that allows for private charter to achieve its most fundamental objective.

"The overall drive to the industry remains convenience," says Thomas. "you get closer to the destination quicker, it expedites your time on the ground. You can push the flight back, or bring it forward. It's worth it, and when you're traveling with three or four business colleagues in first class, the pricing starts to make even more sense. And in some cases, that means coach as well."

Rome concurs with Thomas. "We're in the service business, we're available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We do a lot of business in Europe, a lot of places where there are time differences, so its a definite 24-hour a day world market. He states his company currently has over 1,000 customers, but adds, "we think there are well over a million potential customers out there. It's currently a $2- to $3-billion dollar industry and we think its going to be $30 billion over the next five years."

With the last of the questions completed, Rome senses a quiet moment, a window of opportunity, like the one he saw only three years ago. The candidate wants to make a closing statement. "We're a great company. You're going to be very impressed with the things you hear and see. We have a great reputation inside and outside the industry. We have the largest sales force in private aviation, and that's a fact. Mr. Buffett better watch out."