Private jet billionaire Thomas Flohr says demand is surging despite Iran war

Swiss billionaire Thomas Flohr, the founder of private aviation company VistaJet, says demand for private flights is still rising sharply, even as war in the Middle East pushes up jet fuel prices and economists question how long the boom in luxury spending can last.

Flohr told Semafor that his company has seen "an explosion of demand at the top end" of the market for its longest flights. Flying hours sold by Vista Global, VistaJet's parent, rose 28% in its latest quarter, helped by growth in markets from Asia to Africa.

The company has now grown into a business with $2.9 billion in revenue, a fleet of almost 200 aircraft and an order for up to 160 new Bombardier jets over the next decade.

A surge in the Gulf

Vista is headquartered in Dubai, and the war with Iran briefly closed airspace in the region after the US and Israeli strikes. Flohr said that instead of hurting business, the conflict drove more clients to fly private. Hours sold in the Middle East in the second quarter were up more than 68% from a year earlier.

"Today, when you're actually spending time in the UAE, you don't feel anything. It's business as usual," he said. "People need to move, and it's much more difficult for an airline to restart a global logistics infrastructure than it is for us."

He compared the pattern with the COVID pandemic, which also pushed wealthy travelers and companies toward private jets. Vista tripled in size between 2019 and 2024, he said, and demand did not fall back once commercial flights resumed. "We have yet to find someone who says, 'No, I don't want to fly private,'" he said.

Selling time, not luxury

Flohr argues that the industry has lost its old image and that companies now treat private jets as a business tool. Technology companies are the biggest source of growth, he said, because their executives travel constantly between Asia, the Gulf and Silicon Valley.

"It's not about the champagne or caviar. [That] is just, like, movie stuff. It is all about the time efficiency," he said.

Vista sells flights through a subscription model and typically charges between $11,000 and $25,000 an hour. Flohr says companies would rather pay those operating costs than spend tens of millions of dollars buying their own jets. A company-owned aircraft might fly about 250 hours a year, while Vista's fleet averages around 1,000, which lets it recover its fixed costs much faster.

IPO on the table

The comments come as Vista Global Holdings, which owns the VistaJet and XO brands, considers a stock market listing. Bloomberg reported in August that the company was looking at European exchanges, including Milan and Zurich, for an initial public offering that could raise more than $1 billion and value the group at about $10 billion. Its backers include RRJ Capital and Rhone Group.

Flohr declined to give details. "We continue to explore our capital market alternatives," he said. "If you're ready, and the right opportunity comes, you can go."

He also brushed aside questions about President Donald Trump's attack on Bombardier, the Canadian jet maker. Trump said in September that nobody should buy its aircraft any more. Vista's large order with the company could be caught up in the trade dispute between the US and Canada. "I did very well for the last 22 years to stay out of politics, and I will stay out of politics for another 22 years," Flohr said, adding that the company's contract is in place.

A racing driver in business

Flohr founded VistaJet in 2004 after a career in banking. Outside business, he races in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and he says the sport has shaped how he runs his company.

"In racing, you're not going to win Le Mans if you do 10 good laps," he said. "If you can consistently perform at 97% or 98%, you get very far in life."

He described himself as more cautious than his two careers suggest. "From the outside, it might look like risk, but I'm rather risk-averse," he said. "I'm extremely diligent about preparation."