Fly Alliance sells charter and maintenance certificates to former majority owner Kevin Wargo; brokerage continues under CEO Chris Tasca
Why It MattersSplitting certificate holding from customer-facing brands shows how charter companies can separate regulated operating assets from brokerage and membership sales, moving aircraft and staff between entities without interrupting jet card service.
What happened
Kevin Wargo, the former majority owner and co-founder of Fly Alliance, has bought back the company's maintenance and charter-operator certificates five months after leaving the business. Both Wargo and Fly Alliance CEO Christopher Tasca confirmed the deal, which closed on Friday. Tasca, previously the minority partner, led a management buyout in July.
Wargo's Cove Capital acquired the Part 135 charter and Part 145 maintenance certificates, which will now operate as Atelier Aviation. According to the most recent FAA report, the charter certificate covers 18 aircraft. Tasca said three fractional Gulfstream large-cabin jets will transition to a new operator. The fleet includes nine Gulfstreams, a Global Express, three Hawker 800/900s, two Citation XLS aircraft and two Citation Sovereigns. Fly Alliance ended 2025 as the 14th-largest U.S. private jet operator based on charter and fractional hours.
Wargo said Atelier will be a sister company to Sky Travel Solutions, a Part 135 operator he launched earlier this year. Sky Travel Solutions will be the customer-facing brand selling ad hoc charter and jet cards. In August, Wargo bought back the parts business from Fly Alliance and renamed it Altitude Parts. Across the three units, Wargo said the businesses now have 100 employees, with most staff supporting the charter and maintenance business expected to move to Atelier Aviation.
Fly Alliance will continue as a brand and as a jet card and charter broker, with its 355 jet card members and around 35 full-time employees. The former Fly Alliance managed fleet is expected to end up between Atelier and another operator. Tasca said an announcement about a new operating partner for managed aircraft is expected within several days, and that it is business as usual for jet card clients.
Industry impact & what to watch
The deal shows how the regulated core of a charter business, the operating and maintenance certificates, can be separated from the commercial layer that sells flights. In this structure Fly Alliance keeps its brand, its 355 jet card members and its brokerage role, while the Part 135 and Part 145 certificates sit with a different owner under a different name. Charter customers buy from a brand, but the aircraft are flown and maintained under whichever certificate holder stands behind it.
That arrangement also explains why a jet card member's experience can stay unchanged through an ownership split. Membership contracts and sales relationships live in the brokerage, and flights are supplied by an operator the brokerage chooses. Because the aircraft, crews and mechanics move with the certificates, the practical question for any card holder is which operator is actually conducting their flights at a given time.
The next milestone is the announcement Tasca expects within several days naming a new operating partner for the managed aircraft. Who that operator is, and how the fleet is divided between it and Atelier, will show how much of the former Fly Alliance flying remains with the entity Wargo now controls.
