OneFlight International Pauses Flights for 30 Days Amid Payment Troubles and Financial Strain

OneFlight International, a Denver-based private jet broker, has paused flights for 30 days, according to multiple people familiar with internal conversations at the company. OneFlight executives were not immediately available for comment. The company reported $232 million in revenue last year and is known for its televised BAJit advertising campaign featuring Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec, NFL Hall of Famer John Elway, and PGA pros Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala.

Many customers prepay for future flights, with minimum deposits starting at $100,000. Analysts estimate, based on sales volume, that more than $150 million in prepaid flights could be at risk. In a bankruptcy proceeding, clients holding prepaid charter or jet card balances are classified as unsecured creditors. In recent weeks, charter operators reported that OneFlight had fallen behind on payments, with several saying they were owed more than six figures for completed flights; other operators said they had not experienced payment issues.

Vice president of human resources Ruby Dalton emailed employees last week stating that CEO Ferren Rajput was "actively addressing the financial and operations issues that developed under the previous CFO's leadership" and was taking steps to strengthen the company's financial position. The email responded to a resignation letter from former employee Haylee Hilton, who wrote to several departments that the company continued to "experience difficulties paying operators" and was damaging relationships with operators and clients. Former CFO Hanno Uys was detained by ICE on September 3, 2026, in a matter apparently unrelated to the company.

In August, OneFlight emailed clients announcing a 35% "economic surcharge" effective immediately, citing "extraordinary economic pressures currently affecting private aviation," then rescinded the surcharge hours later. On July 31, 2026, OneFlight entered into a receivables agreement with Swift Funding Source, Inc., selling $2.29 million of future receipts for $1.65 million, less $82,500 in service fees and amounts used to pay existing obligations. The agreement set a 2.34% share of receipts and an initial weekly ACH delivery of $163,821.42. CEO Rajput acknowledged heavy spending on marketing and ambassadors but said the company no longer requires that level of investment; industry experts estimated sponsorships, event activations, and advertising may have totaled more than $50 million annually, including co-title sponsorship of the PGA Tour's Myrtle Beach Classic and a multi-year deal with the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team announced in January.

The receivables sale to Swift Funding Source shows a company trading future income for immediate cash at a discount: $2.29 million of receipts sold for $1.65 million, with $82,500 taken in fees and other amounts applied to existing obligations before OneFlight saw the funds. A 2.34% share of receipts and a weekly ACH delivery starting at $163,821.42 point to a repayment structure tied directly to incoming cash flow rather than a lump-sum loan.

That structure, arranged in late July, predates both the August surcharge episode and the current pause, suggesting the cash pressure operators and employees described was already building before either became public.

OneFlight's prepaid jet card model concentrates risk on the customer side: deposits starting at $100,000 sit as unsecured claims if a broker enters bankruptcy, with no security interest ahead of other creditors. That structure has produced repeated losses across the sector — JetSuite's 2020 Chapter 11 cost jet card members more than $50 million, Verijet's Chapter 7 filing resulted in $10.5 million in jet card losses, and Zetta Jet's 2017 Chapter 11 left more than $50 million owed to vendors.

The broker-operator relationship is the other pressure point: brokers who sell flights but do not own aircraft depend on charter operators to continue accepting bookings even when payments lag, and several operators here said they were owed six-figure sums for completed flights. A pause in flights while payment complaints circulate signals that dependency has been tested.

What happens to the roughly $150 million in estimated prepaid balances, whether the 30-day pause is extended or resolved, and whether more operators disclose unpaid invoices are the next data points that would clarify whether this stabilizes or moves toward a formal proceeding.