The only way is up

FT.com
Financial Times
ARTS & WEEKEND MAGAZINE
November 24, 2006

by Kevin Done

...(Abridged)
As the world of private jets expands, many new actors are being attracted to the scene. One of them is Ricky Sitomer, who made his first millions as a Wall Street broker during the dotcom boom.

Seated in the gilded foyer of the London Dorchester Hotel recently, he laid out his plans to open a London office and begin to tap the UK market. This will be his first move outside the US, where he claims to have become the largest broker of private jets in little more than five years. "We had a great run [as Wall Street brokers], but then the market tanked. We were tech-heavy. We had to decide, did we want to rebuild or go to another growth business? We chose a growth industry."

When times were hot on Wall Street, Sitomer liked to offer his star employees private-jet travel to Las Vegas or Atlantic City as incentive rewards - but often he was unable to find the right aircraft at the right time. The business idea was born.

"We ran in circles with other people that used private jets. Of our contemporaries more and more were flying privately. We were aware of the potential demand."

He now claims a workforce of 250 salesman at his brokerage, Blue Star Jets, spread across offices in New York, Los Angeles, Boca Raton, Miami and Chicago, and says he is looking for between 50 and 100 sales people in London.

"We are in the personal luxury and lifestyle business. we like personal service," he says. "our representatives organize everything, including the food onboard and the flowers for the wife."

The brashness of Blue Star's approach has not endeared Sitomer to some of his much longer-established rivals, but he is unapologetic. He even took the name for his company from the movie Wall Street, in which Michael Douglas's character Gordon Gekko, a power-hungry corporate raider, seeks to buy an airline called Blue Star using inside information. Gekko, typified by his "greed is good" speech, was supposed to be the villain of the piece, but appears to have become an inspiration for a generation of Wall Street brokers. "We did like the movie", says Sitomer. "We are from Wall Street. We chose [the name] for brand recognition. It is ironic - well, Michael Douglas liked it. Our name has become synonymous with service and great luxury. I don't think I will regret it."

Sitomer claims access as a broker to more than 3,500 private jets in the US, and believes charter or jet-card membership schemes will lure customers away from fractional ownership companies such as NetJets, because they do not involve the same level of long-term, financial commitment.

"My goal is having the woman taking tea in Palm Beach saying not that she flew in a Gulfstream G550, but that she flew Blue Star as a luxury status symbol."

Kevin Done is the FT's aerospace correspondent.