Tours

Five Questions With: Stephanie Chung, President of JetSuite

By Yveneka Lestin May 7, 2019 2:37pm

Stephanie Chung, the first African-American president of JetSuite recently sat down with Luxury Travel Advisor to talk about the latest from the private aviation JetSuite, Inc., her newly appointment and more. Among the highlights, JetSuite also announced its partnership with luxury travel company Embark to launch “JetSuite Experiences."

1. What sparked your interest in the aviation field?

I fell in love with aviation at a really young age. When I was a little girl, I was an Air Force brat. I was around planes every single day of my life. I grew up on an active Air Force base and, everyday, I heard planes taking off and landing, so I fell in love with aviation at a young age. I was that kid that knew exactly what I wanted to do—I wanted to be in aviation. Because I had to move every two years of my life, one of the things that my parents did that was so cool, now that I think about it, was they would make sure that whenever we were going from one destination to another—let's say we lived in San Francisco and we got new orders that we had to be in the Boston area—my parents would travel all over the place throughout the country. We would stop at each site and did tourist and non-tourist things and we created this journey every single time. So, whether it was a journey, or an adventure or an experience, what I really loved that my parents did was they exposed me to the world of travel.

2. As the newly appointed president of the private jet charter company, what are some directions or plans you hope to stir the company towards?

We are celebrating our 10th year anniversary. It is such a competitive industry and to get to that 10-year mark, only a handful of us has actually gotten there. So, at JetSuite, we are not only surviving, we are actually thriving. But we did not want to stop there, though. As the newly appointed president one of the thing I challenged my executive team is "How do we take it up a notch?" So, we did some deep, internal soul-searching and pulled back all the layers, and what we discovered is we know what our client really cared about. So, let start there. What the clients care about is: They care about their wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet. So, for us, we decided, as we start to look at every single touch point within the organization, for every touch point that hit the customers in some shape form or fashion, how can we make it better, keeping those two things in mind—that they care about their wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet? What we discovered is, when we have our client onboard, what are some things that we can do with our on-board amenities that really address these two issues: Take care the client and take care of our plant. So, one of our partners, Red Flower—Red Flower is vegan-cruelty free skincare product—we have them aboard our aircraft because that helps take care the client and take care of the planet.

3. You mention on-board amenities, will there be other amenities that are sustainable?

Some of the other brand we partner up with is Torn-ranch. Torn-ranch is from Nepal. They offer a new line of on-board snacks curated by gourmet organic foods. In addition to this, a signature cabin scent by fragrance house Diptyque is available on every flight, as are sustainable JetSuite-branded organic blankets by Coyuchi.

4. Speaking of partnerships, JetSuite has now partnered up with Embark, the international lifestyle partnership group. Could you provide more details about the partnership?

Today’s luxury travelers are looking for exceptional experiences that start the moment they step on board to the moment they return home. Whether it’s a reward for hard work, to strengthen a bond with someone they love or to feel a sense of adventure, our partnership with Embark allows us to personally curate each itinerary based on each client’s specific tastes and preferences and to cater to their underlying motivation for taking the trip. Embark can help JetSuite clients coordinate everything from simple weekend getaways and upgrades to premium suites to access to the most sought-after events to complement their first-class flight experiences on JetSuite’s Phenom 100s, Phenom 300s and Legacy 650 aircraft.

5. Can you talk about your new aircraft or any other new services that you’re offering?

Apart from the launch of the "JetSuite Experiences." There is a new Zunum Areo aircraft coming out in 2022 and JetSuite will be the first client to receive the hybird-to- electric aircraft. Zunum will seat up to 12 passengers and through this partnership with Zunum Aero, JetSuite will add up to 100 Zunum Aero Aircraft to its fleet.