More than a wakeup call, that thing that causes one to become fully alert to a situation, Tia Minzoni’s cancer diagnosis in the first month of 2019 was call to action.
“It makes you think … we don’t have as long as we might think,” Minzoni says. “You just never really know. So, I picked up speed and momentum and stopped saying ‘one day’ and started moving a little faster.”
A serial entrepreneur, Minzoni had always wanted to own an aviation company. It was something almost inherent, this intrigue for air travel. It was actually something passed down to her from her grandmother, who introduced the curiosity to her granddaughter.
One day, Minzoni thought, even as a young girl.
“I always said, ‘One day I’m going to buy a couple of private jets,’ yada, yada,” Minzoni says. “As we were moving along and acquiring smaller businesses, I always looked for aviation as well.”
Well, all of that — the diagnosis and a lifelong curiosity — manifested itself in Minzoni’s October acquisition of Stella Jets, founded in Detroit but now relocated — as fast as she could — to Southlake and completely women-owned.
It’s as family owned as the term allows. Minzoni serves as president and her daughters Jasmine Johnson and Taylor Minzoni act as vice president and associate vice president.
“As soon as possible we moved it to Texas,” Minzoni says. “I don’t have to tell you the benefits of doing business in Texas.”
Stella Jets is an on-demand jet charter company. Stella aggregates jet owners and operators, contracting with roughly 3,000 flight operators across the U.S.
Stella books travelers seeking a private jet trip with one of its operators.
Stella is a small business to watch in 2023, considering similar companies in the market are seeing significant growth year over year in the private jet travel space.
While Minzoni, whose family in Fort Worth extends generations, had always wanted to do something in aviation, it was her firsthand experience several years ago that further triggered the curiosity.
She had traveled extensively but could no longer do so — or as easily — on commercial airlines with her new giant breed of dog, which today is 165 pounds.
“Flying private became more and more attractive to me,” she says. “I saw there was a need for that.”
Minzoni’s background is in marketing and data targeting. She has worked across the U.S., including in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Times. She has also done a lot contract work helping companies grow.
As she calls it, “helping people live the life they dream of.”
“It just made sense I would do for my own companies at this point in my career,” she says.
The first owner had ceased all of his marketing efforts when he decided to sell, Minzoni says. Mother and daughters have revamped the company’s marketing and the website. Moreover, the company had never been marketed or networked in Texas.
“We’re seeing a 40% on quote requests,” she says. “We’ve really been able to start branding it down here.”
There was also a learning curve in the industry. “Being passionate doesn’t mean you know how to work the systems,” Minzoni says.
What it costs to book a flight varies, but, of course, that question is the one most widely pondered.
It depends on length of flight and size of the plane. The planes charge by flight hour, and smaller planes are less costly than larger planes, which can hold up to 30 people.
Flights can range from $1,500-$20,000 an hour, plus taxes and fees, Minzoni says.
There is also something called an “empty leg.”
An operator who takes passenger to her destination needs to get back to its base. It will likely do so without a passenger. Minzoni cited data suggesting 90% of private jet flights are empty. An operator would obviously like to get someone in a seat to off-set his cost of returning home.
“Typically, you can get those flights for 80% off a custom charter quote,” she says.
Stella is working up an empty leg subscription program, which would allow subscribers access to these flights for a monthly charge.
That is still being developed, says Minzoni.
Stella Jets is the new reason Minzoni has to wake up in the mornings. After treatment and surgery, she has been cancer free for three years.
That experience, however, will be a constant reminder that the time is always now. And if Stella Jets can be inspiration for someone else who needs a wakeup call, so be it.
“There are so many of us who have so much potential but keep waiting for that perfect time,” Minzoni says. “It was the cancer that made me think, ‘what am I waiting for?’ The only thing that holds us back is us. My biggest passion is inspiring people to live their best life right now. Quit putting it off.”
