Subramanian and Pelet, on the runway with Aero
(Courtesy Uma Subramanian)

Subramanian and Pelet, on the runway with Aero
(Courtesy Uma Subramanian)

When Uma Subramanian (MBA 2008) joined Aero Technologies as CEO in March 2019, the company was “just a kernel of an idea,” she recalls. “It was the idea that there is an enormous opportunity to make air travel better.” The startup saw space in the market between premium commercial airline options that were increasingly inconvenient and the ever-more expensive choice of private air travel.

Countless entrepreneurs have sought to attract high-end travelers with the promise of private-flight amenities without the costs of ownership. Most of those startups have pursued a shared charter model—an Uber-like, asset-light approach at odds with most successful aviation business models. Subramanian, who has spent the majority of her career in the aerospace sector, proposed a different approach for Aero, one that took its cues from other profitable airlines that own their fleets: “We’re a low-cost carrier on the back end and a premium service on the front end,” she explains.

Mikael Pelet (MBA 2008) shares Subramanian’s passion for air travel; a type-rated captain, he occasionally pilots Aero flights in addition to his duties as CFO: “Historically, the most successful models are low-cost airlines; we’re flipping that model on its head.”

Aero purchases regional jets previously used by commercial airlines and converts them into planes with a sleek black paint job and just 16 hand-stitched leather seats. Its routes run from private terminals, often at smaller metropolitan airports—such as Van Nuys in Los Angeles and Farnborough near London—to vacation destinations including Aspen, Los Cabos, Ibiza, and Mykonos. Passengers, who are spared navigation of long security lines, are asked to arrive 30 minutes prior to their departure times. The company’s motto is “80 percent of the value of private for 20 percent of the cost.” The fare of a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Aspen for a long weekend in the fall season ran approximately $3,800 per person, about twice the cost of a nonstop first-class ticket.

Aero took off in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic had reduced expected global passenger airline traffic by some 60 percent. Subramanian thinks it was the perfect moment. “The pandemic grounded commercial aviation, but it didn’t ground demand,” she notes. “The demand was still there, especially for products like ours that limited your exposure.”

When passenger air travel neared pre-pandemic levels in 2022, Aero discovered another advantage. With commercial airports and airlines unable to meet demand due to worker shortages and fuel prices on the rise, travel became a more costly and time-consuming undertaking. Aero was spared the worst of those challenges. Private terminals avoided mass layoffs during the pandemic—and the staffing crunch that followed once travel picked up again. And while the price of fuel affected the entire industry, Aero’s premium fares allowed it to absorb the costs more readily than airlines that operated on a slim profit margin.

Investors have seen promise in the Aero model. In August, the company closed its Series B funding round, raising $65 million and bringing its total investments (debt and equity) to $104.5 million. “We’ve demonstrated substantial success both in the United States and Europe,” observes Pelet. “Now we need to double down and expand further in those markets.”

As Aero does that, attention to customer service will continue to be a key component of the company’s model. “Our passengers are high-value customers who are focused on having a radically better experience. They have really high expectations that we want to continuously deliver on,” Subramanian says. The high-touch model allows the company to get a close-up understanding of customer behavior on different routes. “We know our customers by name,” she says. “And in the future, I think that the expectation of all customers will be that airlines know who they are and offer more personalized service.”

Subramanian estimates that the airline’s current fleet will be ready for a refresh in 10 to 15 years—about the time she expects that the next generation of green aircraft will debut. She isn’t sure which of the innovations currently in development—such as planes powered by hydrogen or battery power—will win the race to the runway, but she wants Aero to be positioned as an early adopter of these environmentally friendly new airplanes. The airline’s focus on short-haul regional flights with a light payload makes it an ideal candidate, she explains. But just as important is building the company’s reputation. “We’ll be in a place where we’ll have a loyal customer base and a strong brand,” Subramanian says, envisioning a time when Aero will have grown from an aviation startup to a leader in the sector.

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