FLYING Magazine
After CEO Mike Silvestro alluded to it during a Thursday morning interview with Yahoo Finance, Flexjet on Thursday confirmed it has a new, exclusive arrangement with Gulfstream that will add the G500 to its growing large cabin fleet.
Flexjet formally announced that the G500 entered its fleet on Thursday afternoon and said its agreement with the manufacturer grants it “exclusivity as the only fractional provider to receive delivery of new Gulfstream G500 and G700 aircraft.” The G500s will replace Flexjet’s approximately 30 G450s as its flagship large cabin airframe. They will be available to fractional owners through the provider’s Red Label by Flexjet program, which assigns flight crews to a single aircraft.
The move expands Flexjet’s high-end, ultra-long-range fleet that also includes the G650. It introduced three $96 million G700s in September. With more than 60 G450s, G650s, G700s, and G500s in the company’s global fleet of about 340 aircraft, it is the largest owner, operator, and maintainer of Gulfstream models. Before 2014, Flexjet solely operated Bombardier airframes.
In February 2025, Flexjet signed a deal worth up to $7 billion for 182 of Embraer’s Praetor 600, Praetor 500, and Phenom 300E models, plus 30 options. In September, it ordered 300 laminar-flow Phantom 3500 business jets from Otto Aerospace, with plans to be the model’s launch customer.
What Flexjet Is Getting
With a top range of 5,200 nm, the G500 like the G700 has the international range required for Flexjet to offer trips across the Atlantic, such as from New York to London. Per Gulfstream, it is about 33 percent more fuel efficient than the G450, allowing it to fly 1,000 nm farther using the same amount of fuel.
Flexjet could use the new addition to link customers to a private terminal at Farnborough Airport (EGLF) in the U.K. that it hopes to open this year.
Powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PW800 series engines, the G500 cruises at about Mach 0.90 and 51,000 feet. Its cabin altitude is 3,255 feet when flying at 41,000 feet. The premium cabin—configurable for up to 15 passengers—features 14 of the largest windows in private aviation, as well as replenished fresh air, granite counters, and fully enclosed forward and aft lavatories. Flexjet is also undertaking a fleetwide Starlink Wi-Fi installation.
For pilots, the G500 Symmetry flight deck features active control sidesticks and touchscreens that are used to manipulate fly-by-wire and low-speed handling systems. A synthetic vision system recreates terrain in 3D.
Flexjet in its news release did not say how many new G500s and G700s it ordered. However, Silvestro told Yahoo Finance that the company will take delivery of 50 new jets this year after a 2025 that saw only 854 total deliveries industrywide, per Private Jet Card Comparisons.
In addition to the Gulfstream and Embraer jets, Flexjet’s fleet includes Sikorsky S-76 helicopters.
In June, the company acquired London-based The Jet Business and brought in its Tiktok-famous founder, Steve Varsano, to enhance its aircraft procurement and sales activities.