Fly Alliance to Replace Entire Flight Management System with flyExclusive’s AI-Powered Contrails FMS

flyExclusive sees additional charter demand, rather than software subscriptions, as the economic opportunity from connecting operators.

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Announced at NBAA-BACE 2026, the company-wide transition marks a major milestone in flyExclusive's plan to connect independent operators, improve aircraft utilization, and create new revenue opportunities across private aviation

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- flyExclusive, Inc. (NYSE American: FLYX), one of the nation's largest private jet operators, today announced that Fly Alliance has agreed to replace its existing flight management system across its entire operation with Contrails FMS, flyExclusive's free, AI-powered aviation operating platform.

Fly Alliance to Replace Entire Flight Management System with flyExclusive’s AI-Powered Contrails FMS Announced at NBAA-BACE 2026, the company-wide transition marks a major milestone in flyExclusive's plan to connect independent operators, improve aircraft utilization, and create new revenue opportunities across private aviation.

The announcement, made at NBAA-BACE 2026, represents a significant milestone for Contrails FMS and introduces a new approach to aviation technology: providing operators with advanced flight management software at no cost while creating opportunities for operators to do more business together.

Why Free? Because the Opportunity Is Bigger Than Software.

Private aviation remains highly fragmented. Operators manage their own fleets and schedules independently, often leaving aircraft underutilized, repositioning opportunities unrealized, and customer demand unfulfilled.

flyExclusive believes connecting operators through shared aircraft availability can change that.

Contrails FMS is designed to allow participating operators and brokers to access authorized, real-time aircraft availability across participating fleets, making it easier to book flights on one another's aircraft. Its patent-pending scheduling optimizer is designed to reduce empty legs, improve utilization, increase yields, and generate additional revenue.

The goal is simple: flyExclusive wants to book more flights on other operators' aircraft and wants those operators booking more flights on flyExclusive aircraft.

Just as importantly, operators retain ownership and control of their data. Contrails FMS is designed with tenant isolation and controlled information sharing. Customer identities, customer relationships, proprietary pricing, and commercially sensitive information are not required to participate.

flyExclusive intends to share the same aircraft scheduling and availability information it asks participating operators to share.

"We know what every operator is thinking: What's the catch?" said Jim Segrave, Founder, Chairman and CEO of flyExclusive. "There isn't one. We don't want your customers or your proprietary information. We want to know when your airplanes are available so we can book flights on them, and we want you to know when ours are available so you can book flights on ours. We'll share the same information we're asking you to share. We believe there's far more value in helping everyone fly more trips than in charging operators for software. It's that simple."

Fly Alliance Commits to Company-Wide Migration

Fly Alliance, an established private aviation operator with more than 100,000 flight hours and 50,000 dispatched legs, has agreed to replace its existing flight management system across its entire operation.

The company provides charter, aircraft management, jet cards, fractional ownership, and aircraft sales and acquisitions. Its commitment represents a full operational transition rather than a limited pilot or supplemental deployment.

“For operators like Fly Alliance, the real opportunity isn't just reducing software costs. It's improving aircraft utilization, eliminating unnecessary inefficiencies, and creating more opportunities to generate revenue," said Chris Tasca, CEO of FlyAlliance. "Contrails brings those priorities together in one platform. By connecting operators and making aircraft availability more accessible, we believe there's an opportunity to make the entire charter ecosystem more productive. That's a compelling reason for us to make this transition across our business.”

The agreement follows flyExclusive's March 2026 announcement that it would make its flight management and scheduling optimization technology available to other Part 135 operators without licensing fees.

AI-Powered Technology Built by Operators

Contrails FMS combines aircraft scheduling, crew compliance, dispatch, maintenance visibility, disruption recovery, fleet optimization, and AI-assisted workflows in one operating platform.

Developed from technology used in flyExclusive's own operations and intellectual property acquired from Volato Group, including Mission Control, Contrails FMS is designed to automate workflows, assist operational decisions, and optimize aircraft schedules.

Unlike traditional flight management systems built primarily to store and organize information, Contrails FMS uses AI and automation to help operators perform more of the work.

"Adding AI to a twenty-year-old software business model doesn't change the business model," Segrave said. "We're challenging both. Operators should have better technology, fewer manual processes, lower costs, and the ability to generate more revenue."

Challenging the Traditional Aviation Software Model

For decades, aviation operators have paid recurring licensing fees, per-user charges, and additional costs for software integrations and functionality.

Contrails FMS is being offered without software licensing fees, per-seat charges, or feature gates.

flyExclusive believes the economic opportunity from connecting participating operators, improving aircraft utilization, and capturing additional charter demand is substantially greater than the revenue available from selling software subscriptions.

At NBAA-BACE 2026, flyExclusive is inviting operators to reconsider both what they pay for flight management technology and what that technology should deliver.

"Your next FMS bill should be your last."

Learn more at www.contrailsfms.com.

About flyExclusive

flyExclusive (NYSE American: FLYX) is a FAA-certificated private aviation company providing charter, Jet Club membership, and fractional ownership services worldwide. The company operates a combined total of approximately 80 jets, ranging from light to large cabin sizes, with full operational control over maintenance, refurbishment, and avionics through its in-house MRO facilities at its headquarters in Kinston, North Carolina. Learn more at www.flyexclusive.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261021496446/en/

Media Contact
Hannah Rose
VP of Marketing
media@flyexclusive.com

Source: flyExclusive, Inc.

Key Terms

part 135 regulatory

Part 135 is the section of U.S. aviation regulations that governs on-demand and small commercial air operations, such as charter flights, air taxis and some commuter services. For investors, Part 135 status signals the level of safety oversight, operating limits, insurance requirements and costs a company faces—think of it like a business license tier that dictates what routes, aircraft and customers a carrier can serve and how much it costs to run safely and legally.

empty legs technical

An "empty leg" is a one-way, non-revenue flight that a chartered aircraft must fly to reposition itself when it has no paying passengers aboard — for example, returning to base after dropping off clients or flying to pick up new clients. Charter operators often offer these flights at reduced prices because the plane would fly empty otherwise, but schedules, routing and availability are temporary and can change on short notice since the flight exists only to move the aircraft rather than to serve a booked trip.

tenant isolation technical

Tenant isolation is the practice of keeping each customer’s data, settings and computing resources separate when multiple customers share the same software or cloud service, like renting separate rooms in the same building rather than sharing one open space. For investors, strong tenant isolation reduces the risk that a security breach, software bug, or heavy use by one customer will affect others, which protects revenue, limits liability, and supports regulatory compliance and customer trust.