A couple of pioneers in the piston fractional market have merged and the winner appears to be Cirrus Design. AirShares Elite, which runs a fleet of “professionally managed” Cirrus SR22 G3 Turbos, has taken over iFly, “the world’s first exclusive aero club,” in a deal that will result in iFly members, presumably including spokesman Erik Lindbergh, making the transition from the Cessna 350s they now fly to the Cirrus.
“AirShares and iFly have been the innovators and market leaders in our respective markets; now, we can move forward together,” iFly Chairman Andrew DeMond said in a joint news release with AirShares Elite CEO David Lee. “For iFly’s California members, the combination with AirShares lets them move up to a turbo-normalized aircraft ideally suited to the West Coast market.” For his part, Lee said iFly clients will not only get a more capable airplane, they’ll get more geography to cover in it. “AirShares is the largest national shared ownership program and iFly runs the biggest program in the Los Angeles / San Diego market. Together, we will offer our customers an even greater range of flying experiences – more planes in more locations, with a larger, more experienced and more capable organization. The new organization will be a plus for all of our owners.” iFly members will get some free stick time to make the shift to the Cirrus. The fate of the iFly fleet of Cessna 350s was not mentioned in the news release.
