LAS VEGAS—Fast-growing charter fractional and jet-card company flyExclusive plans to expedite its growth with a public offering.

Kinston, North Carolina-based flyExclusive filed a final proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 17, beginning a 30-day review period. Founder, chairman and CEO Jim Segrave is hopeful the company will go public by Thanksgiving—it would trade as “FLYX” on the New York Stock Exchange.

Even before revealing its plan to go public, flyExclusive made a splash at NBAA-BACE by stepping out as the launch customer for Textron Aviation’s new Citation CJ3 Gen2 light jet. The order for up to 30 CJ3 Gen2s is part of a larger order for up to 44 Citation jets the company placed in 2022.

flyExclusive owns and leases a fleet of 100 aircraft and lays claim to being the second-largest operator of Cessna Citations and fifth-largest U.S. charter and fractional operator.

“The business is incredibly capital-intensive and we’re evolving into the fractional space and making massive deposits to order a lot of airplanes,” Segrave told ShowNews during an interview in one of the company’s Citation Sovereigns at Henderson Executive Airport. “We have $600 million worth of airplanes on order with Textron—we’d like to double that. What we’re doing is saying let’s raise capital to really put the business on steroids growth-wise. It puts us in a position to be able to grow it rapidly.”

A pilot since the age of 19, Segrave founded Segrave Aviation in Kinston in 1994. “The business kind of grew with me,” he related. In 2010, Delta Air Lines subsidiary Delta AirElite acquired the business, doubling the size of its fleet. Delta renamed the company Delta Private Jets, which the airline later merged with Wheels Up.

At the conclusion of a five-year non-compete agreement with Delta, Seagrave founded flyExclusive in Kinston in 2015. In recent years, the company has substantially expanded its MRO capabilities to maintain its own fleet as well as aircraft from other operators.

In 2021, flyExclusive unveiled new electrostatic painting and coating and aircraft interior refurbishment facilities in Kinston. Avionics manufacturer Garmin recently authorized the company to perform G5000 flight deck upgrades of Citation jets. It was awaiting FAA approval of the wiring harnesses it builds in-house for G5000 installations.

flyExlusive now employs nearly 800 people, including 200 maintenance technicians. Segrave would remain as chairman, CEO and the majority shareholder of the public company.

“That was really important to me in doing this because I wanted to maintain the discipline that got us there, and to maintain that, I wanted to have control to keep doing the things that made us special,” he said. “I’m going to invest money we raised into airplanes, into our product.

“One of the superpowers we have is that we are consolidated into one location, all of our people are together, we have one certificate,” Segrave added. “When I walk out of my office I can go see everyone on my executive team in about 5 min. The power of that is hard to quantify in money but it makes a massive difference in culture.”