The Smart Marty Sky Dispatch
How private aviation is growing with the migration of billionaires to Florida. Yes, billionaires
Florida's share of U.S. billionaires has grown by more than 150 percent over the past decade. One industry growing alongside that trend is private aviation. Palm Beach International Airport ranked among the nation’s busiest for private aviation. WLRN’s Sofia Zarran spoke with Paul Kloet, executive vice president of sales at Jet Linx, one of the nation’s largest private aviation companies, about how the industry has evolved and what its growth means for Florida.
Private aviation in Florida is being reshaped by a notable demographic shift, with WLRN reporting that Florida’s share of U.S. billionaires has risen by more than 150 percent over the past decade. The growth in wealth in the state is described as aligned with increased demand for private air travel, as executives and high-net-worth individuals relocate or concentrate assets in Florida. The report highlights Palm Beach International Airport as one of the nation’s busiest airports for private aviation, underscoring the scale of activity in the region and its correlation with the billionaire migration.
The WLRN piece includes insights from industry executives to explain how private aviation has evolved in Florida. Paul Kloet, the executive vice president of sales at Jet Linx, is featured discussing what the growing billionaire population means for private-air travel in the state and how the market has adapted to higher utilization, scheduling demand, and service offerings. The interview suggests a compatibility between the demographic shift and increasing private-air traffic, framing it as a natural consequence of wealth concentration and mobility patterns in Florida.
AVweb’s reporting adds a separate but related thread to the broader picture by detailing a criminal case connected to private aviation infrastructure in Florida. The outlet reports that a dispute over maintenance work led to felony charges against a Florida man accused of removing records from a Piaggio Avanti after the airplane was moved to another aviation company. The alleged happenings point to internal turmoil and potential regulatory and maintenance-record concerns within repair and operations networks serving private aircraft.
According to AVweb, the individual charged is Kevin Vance McKamey, age 61, of Largo. He turned himself in on November 3 after investigators accused him of entering a Bayside Aviation hangar in Clearwater and taking aircraft records and a key. The incident is tied to a period starting October 23, when the aircraft was moved from Bayside Aviation to Tour Aviation for repairs amid a civil dispute over the work. The missing documentation became a significant element of the investigation, with authorities estimating a replacement of the logbooks at approximately $30,000 and noting that the absence of records concerning the repairs could affect the aircraft’s value by about $107,000.
The Piaggio Avanti involved is described as a 2005 model valued at roughly $1.7 million, according to AVweb’s report. Investigators allege that McKamey returned the aircraft key along with most of the logbooks after questioning Bayside Aviation employees, but some records related to the repair work and associated billing remained unaccounted for. The case highlights potential vulnerabilities around maintenance documentation in private aviation and the kinds of disputes that can arise between service providers and owners or other parties in the chain of custody.
In the charges described by AVweb, McKamey faces counts that include grand theft, burglary of an occupied structure, and burglary of an unoccupied conveyance. The charges reflect the nature of the alleged actions—unauthorized access, removal of records, and taking possession of the aircraft’s documentation and keys—within a hangar environment and as part of a dispute over maintenance work. The situation illustrates the seriousness with which authorities treat the unauthorized removal of records and keys from an aircraft in a private-aviation maintenance context.
Together, these reports from WLRN and AVweb depict a twofold picture of private aviation in Florida: on one hand, a booming activity level tied to the concentration of wealth and the resulting demand for private travel services, contrasted with Florida’s status as a hub for private aircraft activity; on the other hand, a reminder of the less-visible risks and legal complexities that accompany private-aircraft ownership and maintenance, including how disputes over work and record-keeping can escalate into criminal investigations. The sources do not connect these two threads into a single causative narrative, but they collectively illustrate the breadth of factors shaping private aviation in the state.