Flight Options Press Release

Flight Options Chairman Kenn Ricci Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from National Air Transportation Association

Honored with William A. Ong Memorial Award, Aviation Group's Highest Tribute

CLEVELAND, OH - June 5, 2012 - Flight Options, LLC, the second-largest company in the private jet travel industry, today announced that its chairman, Kenneth Ricci, has received the William A. Ong Memorial Award from the National Air Transportation Association. Presented annually since 1984, the Ong Memorial Award is given for "extraordinary achievement and extended meritorious service to the general aviation industry," and is considered one of the industry's most prestigious accolades. Ricci becomes the youngest-ever recipient of this lifetime achievement award.

"I am honored, and deeply grateful, that the National Air Transportation Association has selected me as this year's winner of the William A. Ong Memorial Award," said Ricci. "I regard the award not simply as a personal honor but as recognition of the men and women of Flight Options and the other aviation companies with which I have been honored to have been associated. My success is built on the foundation of their talent and efforts."

Ricci, who has spent more than three decades developing innovative services in the aviation industry, revolutionized the fractional aircraft ownership industry by founding Flight Options in 1998. Within four years, he grew Flight Options to rank as the second-largest company in the industry. In 2011, Flight Options posted its third consecutive year of sales and operating gains, making it one of the few aviation companies to see such sustained success.

Since founding aircraft management and corporate charter operator Corporate Wings in 1980, Ricci has launched or led other aviation enterprises including Nextant Aerospace, Constant Aviation and Inertial Airline Services. He also has played a key role in such ventures as the restructuring of Mercury Air Centers, which was sold to Macquarie Infrastructure Trust in 2007 in a deal valued at $615 million.

In addition to leading several aviation operating companies, Ricci also is the principal of Directional Aviation Capital, which owns or invests in various aviation enterprises including Flight Options, and is an operating partner at Resilience Capital Partners, a private equity firm with a wide variety of portfolio companies, including an investment in Flight Options.

Ricci has been honored as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of Year in 2000, has received four NEO Success Awards for business growth and, in 2010, received the Harvard Business School's Dively Entrepreneurship Award. He also has been named one the most influential people in aviation by Aviation International News.

Ricci is an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame and the Cleveland Marshall School of Law. He also is a type-rated pilot in Gulfstream, Falcon and Citation jet and served as personal pilot to President Bill Clinton during his first race for president. Ricci serves on several corporate boards and is the aviation advisor to the Guggenheim Aero Opportunity Fund. Ricci also serves on the Business Advisory Council of the University of Notre Dame, the Board of Trustees of University Hospitals, The National Board of Childhelp and Gilmour Academy.

Ricci's management strategies have been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Inc. Magazine. He is the Author of "Management by Trust", a book featuring practical management techniques for building employee trust and success which, praised by the New York Times Book Review as a "landmark success manual for corporate America."

About Flight Options

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Flight Options, LLC is the second-largest private aviation company in the United States, providing more than 1,300 owners and clients with a full suite of fractional ownership, membership and 25-hour jet card programs. The company's fleet consists of more than 100 aircraft, including the Hawker 400XP, Nextant 400XT, Embraer Phenom 300®, Hawker 800XP, Citation X and Embraer Legacy 600®, flying clients to most of North America, the Caribbean or Europe with as little as ten hours notice. With five FAA Diamond Award-winning maintenance centers in Las Vegas, Teterboro, West Palm Beach, Sacramento and Cleveland, Flight Options was the first fractional jet operator to receive the ARG/US Platinum Safety Rating and is the only provider to have received the rating six consecutive times. More information is available at www.flightoptions.com or by calling 877.703.2348. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or download the Flight Options iPhone Application.

Lauren Florian
Flight Options
216.797.8131
lflorian@flightoptions.com
Mary Ellen Higgins
The Hubbell Group, Inc.
781.878.8882
mhiggins@hubbellgroup.com
Nextant 400XT Citation X Legacy 600