OneFlight ‘actively addressing…financial and operations issues’

An email from OneFlight’s vp-human resources points a finger to the former CFO who has been in ICE detention since last week. Englewood, Colorado-based private jet charter broker OneFlight International, known for its BAJit television ads featuring Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec, multiple celebrity ambassadors, high-profile sponsorships, activations, and a continuous stream of jet card deals, said it is addressing “financial and operational issues” in an internal email obtained by Private Jet Card Comparisons. OneFlight is a large player in the world of on-demand charter flights and jet cards. In January, OneFlight reported $232 million in total revenue in 2025, up 90% year on year, crediting in part its sports sponsorships and international expansion. In an interview with Private Jet Card Comparisons, its founder and CEO Ferren Rajput said the company is on track for a significant increase in revenues in 2026. He says the company, after spending to build its brand with aggressive marketing, is now cutting those activities. The focus is now on hiring more employees to handle the volume, with some operators and competitors “stirring it up.” In the email from a vice president, the company is pointing the finger, in part, at its former financial chief. VP of Human Resources Ruby Dalton emailed the memo on Saturday after concierge coordinator Haylee Hilton sent a resignation email. Hilton had been employed with OneFlight since August 2025. In her email, which copied several departments, Hilton wrote, “The team deserves honesty and regarding OneFlight’s financial and operational position,” adding, “We continue to experience difficulties paying operators, and in doing so are damaging relationships with trusted operators and clients alike.” Hilton declined to comment. Dalton began her email (below), “Good Afternoon Colleagues,” and wrote, “I want to briefly address the recent email and provide some context.” Dalton continued, “The challenges referenced are not new to leadership and have already been communicated openly by our CEO (Ferren Rajput),” adding, “He is actively addressing the financial and operations issues that developed under previous CFO’s leadership and is taking the necessary steps to strengthen OneFlight’s financial position and long-term stability.” Rajput said Hilton’s email had taken out of context his discussions with staff about the company’s new direction. Rajput says: ‘We have spent money on ambassadors and big money, and that has delivered our name brand as it is today, and we don’t have the need for it anymore. The marketing has done its work. The branding has been established.’ He adds, “My duty is to inform our company of those cutbacks. If an employee looks at that and twists it, it’s what they want to assume.” While Hanno Uys is still listed as CFO on the company website, Rajput confirmed he is no longer with the company. According to his LinkedIn profile, he had been with OneFlight since July 2023. However, the South African native has been in detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Sept. 3, according to an officer at the facility where he is being held. Rajput says Uys’ detention was not related to OneFlight, but declined to comment. In one X post from last year (below), Uys laments that the police want “to arrest me for having an argument with my wife.” A GoFundMe post by Uys last year sought to raise $3,000 for his son to fly to and participate in the World Arm Wrestling Championship in Bulgaria. In February (below), Uys posted on X, “So @RobinhoodApp decided without any proof or explanation or facts that I violated terms, used crypto for gambling or something and locked my ability to send funds.” Several attempts to reach Uys were unsuccessful. On July 31, 2026, OneFlight entered into an agreement with Swift Funding Source, Inc. OneFlight received $1.65 million as the stated purchase price, less $82,500 in service fees and amounts used to pay existing obligations. In return, OneFlight sold Swift $2.2935 million of future receipts. The agreement sets a 2.34% specified percentage of receipts and an initial weekly ACH delivery amount of $163,821.42. That implies OneFlight is on track for around $350 million in revenue this year, something Rajput said was “fair.” A UCC filing detailing the agreement was made on Aug. 31, 2026. Rajput says the filing was in retaliation for a complaint against Swift Funding Source over predatory lending, “and this is their reaction.” One thing is certain: OneFlight had been expanding its sports sponsorships before the new slimmed-down approach to marketing. In 2025, the company became title co-sponsor of the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach tournament, which continued again this year. A local publication estimated the title sponsorship at $2-4 million. In January, OneFlight announced a multi-year sponsorship (above) of the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team. According to RTR Marketing, sponsoring a Formula 1 team in 2026 costs anywhere from $1.5 million to $110 million per year for title naming rights with a top team. Mid-tier deals typically run around $5 million annually. The company also ran multiple activations. They’ve hosted VIP boxes at F1 races in Las Vegas and Miami, luxury yacht cruises for members, a Beach Boys concert, and an annual holiday gala in Denver (below) with celebrities and ambassadors from Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn to Ben Stiller, Kevin Costner, and Herjavec. TV ads have also included NFL Hall of Famer John Elway, and earlier this year, OneFlight launched a new campaign with PGA pros Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala joining Herjavec and Rajput. OneFlight has also added more ambassadors to its roster. Sources say the agreements required OneFlight to provide dozens of free flights for ambassadors and partners, sometimes using a Gulfstream jet owned by Rajput and other times requiring the broker to source flights from operators. Dalton’s email stated the company is seeking to “improve financial discipline and ensure our resources are focused on our employees, clients, and core operations,” adding, “We recognize that there is work ahead, but meaningful progress is underway.” Rajput emphasized, “We are restructuring by cutting costs we don’t need anymore.” Dalton concluded, “We also respect individuals may have different perspectives; however, one person’s opinion should not be viewed as a complete representation of the company or its direction.” Rajput says he was disappointed that Hilton sent the email to multiple employee groups, and Dalton’s email was meant to clarify his previous discussions with employees, not to sound an alarm. Herjavec, who became an ambassador for OneFlight in 2019, says his role in the current OneFlight commercials is part of a longstanding contract that renews annually and is up for renewal later this month. Questions about OneFlight began simmering last month when it emailed clients saying it was imposing a 35% “economic surcharge” with immediate effect, then rescinded it hours later. It attributed the move “to extraordinary economic pressures currently affecting private aviation.” OneFlight is one of the few fixed-rate jet card sellers that has eschewed fuel surcharges for domestic flights. Most jet card sellers implemented them after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the current U.S.-Iran conflict. The International Air Transport Association’s weekly Jet Fuel Price Monitor shows prices are currently 88.9% higher than at the same time in 2025. Despite the revoked price increase, the promotions continued. OneFlight launched what it called Labor Day Double Play. It offered $500,000 in jet card flights for a $250,000 deposit, plus 10 hours in a large cabin jet at no additional cost, a value of over $650,000, implying a 61% discount. The BAJit private jet broker has consistently said the promotions are limited, generally five to 10 of the discounted jet cards, and are designed to make the phones ring. Rajput says, “The promotions are loss leaders, but those loss leaders drive a lot of business. The phones ring, we create more business. The point is you sell 10 cheap cards, and you get those customers for the next four or five years.” The company itself has multiple deposit jet cards. Some programs also include annual membership charges ranging from $15,000 to $40,000. While its stream of email promotions and TV ads offering deals draws scrutiny from both the industry and consumers, its retail programs, which let members select specific aircraft within a category, are priced in line with other companies. According to Private Jet Card Comparisons’ QUICK COMPARE FLIGHT PRICING tool, a 60-minute flight on a Phenom 300 via OneFlight runs $11,886, including FET, taxi time, and applicable amortized membership fees. That is higher than NetJets, Flexjet, and Wheels Up for their jet card programs featuring the Embraer light jet. Likewise, for a four-hour flight on a Challenger 300 series at $55,058, five other providers offer a lower price. There does not appear to be any pending litigation against OneFlight, and to date, Private Jet Card Comparisons has not received any customer complaints about unfulfilled flights. Current and former employees say there have been no payroll issues. However, in one closed online industry forum, several charter operators said they have had payment issues recently. Some said they let OneFlight run up balances of hundreds of thousands of dollars. They then cut off flights until they got paid. Others said they had not had problems, with one operator writing in early August, “They have always paid us, and we (have) done at least a dozen trips in the last couple of months.” A second operator added, “Same here; they have always paid us, no issues.” Operators, who would not speak on the record because they want to continue doing business with OneFlight, said the payment issues are recent and that there had not been any before. They also said they generally found OneFlight very professional to work with. The company’s sales approach of constantly offering discounted promotions has caused concerns not only in the industry but with consumers as well. In the current Private Jet Card Comparisons’ annual subscriber survey, one respondent wrote, “OneFlight has been very reliable. Very easy to work with and offer driving service and catering at no extra charge.” At the same time, another said, “The quality of the service they provide is really good,” before adding, “They often run promotions to increase balances among existing customers, which makes me question their financial reliability.” 46% of respondents say a provider’s financial stability is a critical factor in choosing a program. Another 40% say financial stability matters, but it’s hard to know for sure since most companies are privately held. While Rajput says OneFlight doesn’t escrow funds, few providers do. Even if a broker or operator puts jet card funds into separate accounts, that doesn’t stop them from tapping into that account. A look back at BAJit coverage shows jet card promotions aren’t new. In 2018, OneFlight offered a starter jet card. You received five hours on a light jet for $15,000, or $3,000 per hour. During 2023, Wheels Up navigated a possible bankruptcy. OneFlight offered members up to $100,000 in free flight credits to join its program. At the time, the company said it had allocated $3 million in flight credits to the promotion. OneFlight was founded in 2010. Most broker jet card programs only let members choose a cabin category – light, midsize, super-midsize, etc. OneFlight offers fixed hourly rates with guaranteed availability on over 125 aircraft types, from turboprops to ultra-long-range jets. Instead of choosing a light jet and getting the provider’s choice of light jet, the OneFlight program lets members choose specific aircraft types. More than 30 light jet types are available, including the Phenom 300, Citation CJ3, and Hawker 400XP, each with its own hourly price. OneFlight guarantees only the cabin category, although flyers say they regularly get the aircraft type they want. There is also no surcharge on peak days. It guarantees recovery at no extra cost. The daily minimums on light jets are only 60 minutes, making it often economical for short-hop flyers. Some programs include complimentary catering and black-car airport transfers. OneFlight made the Inc 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in 2021 and 2022. In 2022, it launched its BAJit app. BAJ stands for Book a Jet and is the focus of its numerous television commercials with Herjavec and Elway. The app lets users book ad hoc private jet charter flights in real time with firm quotes. It eliminates the traditional back-and-forth. Last year it added a jet card specifically for international flyers. OneFlight achieved certified broker status from both Wyvern and ARGUS. Better known for their operator ratings, both also offer certifications for charter brokers. According to ARGUS, its audit “evaluates the company’s organizational structure, financial stability, legal compliance, and internal procedures to ensure they strictly meet or exceed industry best practices.” It has held ARGUS broker status since 2016. Wyvern says to gain its Wingman Broker status, “an organization must undergo a comprehensive virtual audit to assess its adherence to rigorous ethical, safety, and legal standards, ensuring alignment with Wyvern’s ethical code and standards.” OneFlight has held its Wyvern status since 2021. It was only the second U.S. broker to attain the certification at the time. In a press release, Wyvern stated, “OneFlight underwent an extensive audit determining the degree to which it conformed to the stringent ethical and legal standards as well as compliance with applicable rules, regulations, and customer-dictated preferences including fiscal integrity and appropriate transparency throughout the transaction.” However, a spokesperson says, “The audits themselves are not financial.” Rajput grew up in Africa and Hong Kong before his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was 16. He originally wanted to be a doctor. However, he started his business career as a stockbroker before moving into the mortgage business. According to the Denver Post, in 2007, the then-owner of Altus Real Estate was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for failing to pay over $1 million in taxes. In a 2020 interview with the One Million By One Million blog, the OneFlight CEO discussed the case. Rajput said: ‘We ended up suing the IRS in Federal court. Within less than a week of putting out a lawsuit with the civil division, the criminal division came out and opened an investigation case against me. It started in 2003. My first son was born in 2004. This case continued until 2006. My wife was pregnant with my second son. I took this to some attorneys. They looked at the case. They wanted to take my case, but the chances of me losing were still there. The chance of me getting a prison sentence of five to six years was not something I was willing to do. I ended up pleading with them for a one-year (sentence) instead of me fighting the case. I went to a prison camp for 10.5 months (and) came back in the middle of 2008. That, to me, was my true turning point in life.’ After being released, Rajput says he sold cars and software to make ends meet before launching OneFlight. Asked what he would tell potential customers who are concerned about OneFlight’s stability, Rajput says, “As much as we have grown, we are constantly under attack from the competition. We are sound. It’s business as usual.”