As we mark the 5-year anniversary of the opening of Jetpack America (then known as Jetlev Southwest), it is with a heavy heart that we announce to our
friends, families, customers and supporters that we will be shutting down our Newport Beach flight center at the end of our current Marine Activities
Permit, which is set to expire in November. As many of you know, our history in Newport Harbor has had its fair share of challenges, as is often the
case with a new concept that is not easily understood or accepted, but through our willingness to adapt and evolve our operation and with the support
of our customers and those in the community who saw the joy we provided to the locals and tourists who came out to experience the wonders of jetpack
flight, we were able to persevere, culminating with a winning vote from the Newport Beach City Council in May 2015 to maintain our operations in the
harbor.
After operating for a year under our current Operations Plan, our hope was that we would be able to revisit some of the more restrictive guidelines within
it, specifically our operating hours, which do not allow us to fly before 10am or after 5pm, and our limitation to only fly a single jetpack, which
severely impacts our ability to meet customer demand (many of you have probably experienced the frustration of trying to book a flight only to see
that the schedule is sold out for weeks into the future, due to this limited capacity), but the City has made it very clear that there would be no
lightening of these restrictions going forward. Without the possibility of some sort of expansion of capacity, either through longer operating hours
or the ability to fly multiple units, there is no viable way to cover our existing operating costs.
On top of the operating restrictions, the City’s Risk Assessor this summer introduced “new insurance requirements”, which would have tripled our annual
premiums. These new insurance requirements levied by the city are typically reserved for extreme commercial operations, like off-shore fishing vessels,
and have no precedent in being applied to a recreational rental activity, like ours. After reviewing these extremely expensive new requirements with
our insurance agent, it was our insurance agent’s opinion that the City Risk Assessor was potentially overestimating the risk associated with hydroflight
rental, especially considering our safety record over the previous five years. To carry the “skyrocketing” (no pun intended) insurance policy would
have driven flight prices up way too high for our customers to afford. With the imposed new requirements being non-negotiable, it became clear that
our ability to operate in Newport Beach had been lost.
It is unfortunate that we will not be able to continue our operations in Newport Beach and we feel that the city, its residents and the thousands of tourists
who have come out to enjoy the fun and unique activity of jetpacking in the harbor are really the ones who are losing out. Our operations will continue
at our San Diego and Las Vegas locations, so our customers will still be able to come out for a flight, but it will unfortunately not be with Newport
Harbor as the backdrop.
We are very proud to have had Newport Beach as our home and headquarters for the past five years and we would like to thank each and every one of our customers
who flew with us and helped us grow to become the industry leader in the world of hydroflight.
To celebrate the past five years, here is a brief history of some of the accomplishments and milestones we’ve achieved…
2011
-Jetpack America (then Jetlev Southwest) opens the third commercial jetpack flight center in the world, located in Newport Beach, California
-Honolulu, Hawaii flight center opens at H2O Sports Hawaii
2012
-1000-flight milestone is crossed
-Jetpack America president Dean O’Malley establishes a new world record by flying a jetpack 26.2 miles from Newport Beach to Catalina Island 2013
-San Diego flight center opens in April at the Mission Bay Sportcenter and
-Total flight numbers pass 10,000
-Commercial clients open operations in the Cayman Islands, Cabo San Lucas, Florida and Singapore
2014
-Jetpack America sells its share of the Honolulu flight center operation to its partner H2O Sports Hawaii in June
-Las Vegas flight center opens at the Spring Mountain Motorsports facility in Pahrump, Nevada at its state-of-the-art 4.5-acre freshwater lake and
aquatic center
-Jetpack America begins offering X-Jets Jetpacks and Jetblades for sale
2015
-Tandem jetpack flights for children begin being offered at all Jetpack America locations
-Total flight numbers pass 25,000
-Flyboard and Jetovator equipment becomes available for purchase via Jetpack America’s online shop
2016
-Jetboard flights become available at all Jetpack America locations
-FlyDive equipment becomes available on Jetpack America website
For all of our customers who are still looking to fly with us, here are the options you’ll have going forward…
1)We will be operating in Newport Harbor through November 13th, so please make your reservation via our website and come out flying with
us.
2)All Returning Pilot minutes and membership flights will be honored at our Newport Beach location through our shut-down date, then they will be redeemable
at our San Diego and Las Vegas locations.
3)Memberships can be transferred or cancelled up until November 13th, but we still require 30-day written notice of any changes.
4)Gift certificates will be transferable to other recipients through November 13th, with written notice of any changes.
We sincerely appreciate your continued support and we look forward to seeing you out flying at our Newport Beach location over the next couple
months, then at our San Diego and Las Vegas locations after that.
Over the past five years, Jetpack America has worked hard to build and maintain its status as the hydroflight industry leader, with top-notch flight
centers, best-in-class training techniques, 5-star customer service and an unmatched sales and service division. Our mission, vision and core
values remain intact and we look forward to the sharing our love of all things hydroflight with the world for years to come!
If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our staff in the office at 888-553-6471 or you can contact me directly at
949-400-9790.
See you in the sky,
Dean O’Malley
President
Jetpack America
