Investors bringing SkyLux Jets to Tampa

TAMPA — Jim Cheatham and Charles Harris, of the Tampa private advisory group The Lionshare Group, and other investors have purchased Daytona Beach-based SkyLux Jets and relocated it to Tampa. The price for the acquisition was not disclosed.

SkyLux Jets is a private-jet charter brokerage that currently employs about 10 people. The company doesn't own any planes itself and instead uses a travel reservation system covering roughly 15,000 planes.

As part of the transaction, Cheatham has become the private-jet company's chairman and CEO and Harris has assumed the role of chief operating officer.

The relocation to Tampa was important, Cheatham says, because part of the more than 5-year-old company's problems previously was absentee ownership.

“Their offices are now five minutes away from my offices,” he says. “The airline industry is consolidating like crazy. Prices are going up. Airlines are reducing routes on unprofitable lines. They're trying to squeeze more seats on a plane. What I see in the marketplace is that we are in a growth curve for private jets.”

The new ownership expects the company to generate sales of $10 million in three years.

Cheatham was previously president of one of the first and largest Wendy's franchises and marketing director for Holiday Inns. Harris is the owner of Dancing With Style.