OOne of Colin Jones’s favorite sayings is “The best known is the best beat” – and it’s a mantra that seems to serve him well.
His California-based private aviation company, Amalfi Jets, has reached the pinnacle of social media stardom, with 2.9 million followers and 144 million likes on TikTok and 778,000 followers on Instagram. That online reputation has translated into real-world bookings, Jones said.
The 24-year-old, who grew up in Westlake Village, Los Angeles, founded the company in 2020 shortly after receiving his pilot’s license at nearby Van Nuys Airport.
After dabbling in e-commerce and selling products through Shopify, he launched Amalfi Jets at just 18 years old from his dorm room at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he later graduated with a degree in aeronautics and a minor in aviation business administration.
“Amalfi Jet has no outside investors and literally started with $0 and a credit card. No investors, no loans, and pure determination and hard work to drive an industry that is very ‘dinosaurs,'” he said. Independent
“During college, after founding, I contacted one of my close friends from high school, Calvin Yun, who was my business partner.”
Amalfi Jet now has 27 full-time employees and, although it has no aircraft, it offers on-demand charter services from a network of 3,500 aircraft in 170 countries, Jones said. The list of famous clients includes influencers and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Olivia Dunn.
Along with regular business deals, Jones has used TikTok to lift the curtain on private aviation, just like the wildly popular reality show. below deck It did a great job for the yachting world. In the clips, we see Jones requesting a “Dior Savage cologne” cabin and a customer calling to book a flight for her dolls.
“There are a lot of great companies in this space — well-capitalized, well-resourced businesses. But the thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of them are quite conservative and traditional in how they operate. So, when we started out, I knew there was no way we could beat them in terms of being traditional. And on the other hand, we couldn’t be completely ridiculous either,” he said.
For us, getting into social media was about sharing the world of private jets—a world most people never get to see. below deckbut there is no private jet equivalent.
“Our goal online was simple: to show the crazy, fun side of private aviation, but also to show that we are real people behind the brand. I think a lot of companies hide behind their brand and try to be this perfect version of what they think success looks like. I wanted to do the opposite – be authentic. And I think that helped us tremendously.”
His presence on social media does not end only at the customer’s request. Jones and his young staff — ages 23 to 44 — also post their behind-the-scenes dramas and escapades at the company.
In the clip, which has been viewed more than 236,000 times, Jones boards an Amalfi jet and “races” it to an employee on a Spirit Airlines commercial flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
Employees are also seen being reprimanded for using company credit cards to spend thousands of dollars a week on non-essential items — from coffee to party favors — and in another instance, an employee tells Jones that an executive from a rival company “lobbied to buy Amalfi Jets.” In this scene, Jones orders the unwanted guest to be removed by security forces.
The clips depict a slightly crazy office culture – so how does Jones balance the need to protect client privacy with professionalism and visibility on social media? After all, discretion and smooth service are the main reasons why ultra-wealthy travelers choose to fly private.
Jones says the calls shown on TikTok represent only a small portion of the company’s business.
“Customers, calls and things you see on social media are maybe two percent of our business. Ninety-eight percent of our business is a customer calling me and saying, ‘Hi Colin, I need a jet from New York to London.'” “Great—it’s $150,000.” “Great, I just sent you the money. Have a nice day.’ It takes a super simple two seconds, and that’s the vast majority of situations we come across.”
Jones, who is not qualified to pilot a jet but enjoys flying light aircraft with friends, believes his TikTok account has helped change the public perception of private jets, noting that the world is not “full of hideously rich people”.
“For many people, private flying is not a luxury, but a necessity. For some, it’s the only way to fly. It allows people to be in multiple places at once,” he said.
“We have one client, with a team of about 12 people, who were doing a large corporate roadshow. When they were based in Los Angeles, they flew with us to Omaha, Chicago, New York, Boston and Miami – all in one day. If they were trying to do it commercially with 12 people, it would be a multi-day trip – with daily flights and separate hotels – with daily flights, hotels and separate hotels. Dictated by the schedule. Airlines
Instead, we used two flight attendants and sent them home with their families by midnight. If you make $15 million a year, hourly billing makes sense.
Therefore, we are trying to change the public perception: there is a real need for private jets. The people behind them aren’t “evil” – they’re often just normal people trying to spend more time with their families or get more things done in a day. “It’s the most efficient, safest and most convenient way to travel, and there will always be a need for it.”
According to Jones, there’s another kind of flight — one that suffers enough from airport turbulence and delays. Every time a commercial carrier experiences customer service breakdowns or check-in queues snake around the terminal, calls to Amalfi Jets apparently increase.
He said: “We once had a customer whose commercial flight was suddenly cancelled, they called us from the airport and within 37 minutes they were in the air on one of our jets, the plane had just landed from another trip, so we sent a car to collect them from the main terminal and take them straight to the plane.” That’s the beauty of private jets.
We even used the experience to come up with a slogan, “If you’re stuck at the gate and feeling blue, Amalfi Jet will save you.” It was supposed to be fun and engaging – and it worked. Whenever the airlines canceled their flights, people started tagging us or saying, “Come save me!”
“That’s the way we’re trying to use social media — to be much more provocative.”
“People don’t remember the ‘20% off next flight’ email anymore. Nobody cares,” he added.. But people love it when we sing and dance in the office about airlines dropping the ball.
Commercial airlines have definitely helped us grow. Airlines innovate with newer aircraft, but ultimately, the airport experience hasn’t changed. Airports are still busy, you still have traffic… Private flying is light years different from commercial flying.
