NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 14, 2026--
BOND, the first fractional private aviation club built exclusively for the highest end of the market, today announced that it has expanded its Bombardier commitment up to $5 billion following its October 2025 launch 1. BOND is accelerating deliveries for 2027 within its existing aircraft order to meet demand, adding four new firm orders for Global aircraft, and upgrading 24 of its existing aircraft options to Global 8000 aircraft with the flexibility to convert them to Global 6500s. The increased commitment reflects BOND’s total relationship with Bombardier, including all firm orders, options, and a first-of-its-kind service agreement.
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The expansion comes as demand at the top of the private aviation market continues to outpace supply, particularly among owners seeking newer aircraft, a more customer friendly ownership model, and highly personalized service. While fractional aviation has scaled by increasing mass demand access to light and midsize aircraft types, BOND prioritizes exclusivity over scale in the super-mid to ultra-long-range types.
"What's driving BOND isn't just demand – it's conviction,” said BOND founder Bill Papariella. “Our founding members aren't passive buyers. They co-invested in the company because they believe this model should exist. When some of today's most prolific entrepreneurs, investors, and entertainers put capital behind the operator, not just the aircraft, that tells you something about how underserved the premium end of this market has been."
BOND was built to address appetite for a more premium ownership experience at the top of the market. As the first exclusively super-midsize and large-cabin fractional fleet in private aviation, it operates with fewer owners per aircraft, a members-only fleet, flight attendants on every flight, and the most premium interiors in the market. Further, all aircraft are backed by a first-of-its-kind, fully integrated OEM-operator partnership with Bombardier, ensuring safety, maximum uptime, and exceptional operational reliability.
“This acceleration underscores the market’s high demand for bespoke business travel offerings and reflects BOND’s immediate success and confidence in Bombardier, our aircraft, and top-rated global service network,” said Éric Martel, President and CEO, Bombardier. “The Global family of aircraft, including the Global 8000, is recognized for its exceptional range, speed, and smooth ride, enabling unmatched productivity and comfort on all types of missions. These are attributes that matter most to our customers, and they are fully aligned with BOND’s commitment to deliver an unprecedented experience to its members.”
The Global 8000 is Bombardier’s flagship aircraft, the world’s fastest civilian aircraft since Concorde, combining long-range capability with a spacious cabin designed for extended travel. BOND’s interest in the Global 8000 reflects where demand has been strongest since launch: among customers seeking the highest level of capability and service.
The expanded commitment follows overwhelming demand from BOND’s founding member investment round, which attracted a concentrated group of ultra-high-net-worth individuals and large-scale institutional CEOs. Leveraging an investment model new to the fractional aviation industry, all of BOND’s founding members have not only purchased fractional interests in specific aircraft, but have also co-invested in the company itself, aligning BOND’s first full year of aircraft owners with the company who operates the fleet.
In support of the accelerated delivery schedule for 2027 member commitments, KKR has increased BOND’s credit facility to $290 million.
“BOND’s early momentum reflects the clear need they’re meeting in the market,” said Daniel Pietrzak, Partner and Global Head of Private Credit at KKR. “We’re proud to be invested in BOND and are confident in its ability to execute on this truly unique offering in private aviation.”
BOND launched in October 2025 with a 50-aircraft firm order and 70 purchase options from Bombardier and an initial investment of $320 million in preferred equity and debt financing led by credit funds and accounts managed by leading global investment firm KKR. To date, BOND has also raised $150 million in equity through its founding membership program and from KKR, bringing BOND’s total funding to date to $440 million.
About BOND
BOND is the first fractional private aviation club built exclusively for the highest end of the market. Through a first-of-its-kind, fully integrated OEM–operator service agreement with Bombardier, BOND defines a new category in private aviation built on unsurpassed quality, high-touch service, capital-efficient ownership, and the lowest owner-to-aircraft ratio in the industry.
Members will begin flying in early 2027. For more information, please visit www.bond.co.
1 The original agreement was initially announced by Bombardier Inc. on June 30, 2025, for a 50-aircraft firm order and services agreement valued at $1.7 billion, and included 70 new aircraft purchase options, which if all options were exercised, the total aircraft and services value would reach more than $4 billion.
BOND Expands Bombardier Commitment up to $5 Billion Amid Exceptional Demand, Increasing Focus on Flagship Global 8000 Aircraft
The U.S. military claimed Tuesday that it has successfully begun to enforce a blockade of Iranian ports, as the standoff between the U.S. and Iran deepens. Tehran threatened to strike targets across the region, a day after Trump warned on social media that any Iranian warships nearing the blockade would be destroyed in a “quick and brutal” strike.
With Pakistan racing to bring the sides together for more talks, U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a second round “could be happening over the next two days.” The first round ended without an agreement on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which the White House says is a sticking point.
Neither side has indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April 22.
Lebanon and Israel opened their first direct diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington, as fierce fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants rocks southern Lebanon. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took part, joining the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the U.S. Hezbollah opposes the direct talks and won’t abide by any agreements made as a result, a high-ranking member of its political council told The Associated Press.
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Addressing a Turning Point USA event in Georgia, the vice president discussed the 20-plus hours of negotiations with Iran where he lead the U.S. delegation. He said that Trump “doesn’t want to make, like, a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain.”
Vance added, “That’s the trade that he’s offering,” and that Trump is telling Iran, “If you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive.”
“We’re going to make it economically prosperous, and we’re going to invite the Iranian people into the world economy in a way they haven’t been in my entire life,” the vice president said.
Pakistan Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press that “our leadership is not giving up” on its efforts to help the U.S. and Iran negotiate. He noted the talks marked the first direct discussion between the two in nearly 50 years.
“We would very much like to see if we can continue to pursue the dialogue,” he added, speaking on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. “We’ll keep at it, and our leadership is at it.”
Aurangzeb said he also this week met with U.S. officials including Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to discuss trade and finance concerns. He plans to meet Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday.
The Treasury Department says “the short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil already stranded at sea is set to expire in a few days and will not be renewed,” in a post on X.
The administration allowed for the delivery and sale of Iranian crude oil already in transport before March 20, and would last through April 19.
Additionally, the administration allowed a waiver on Russian oil at sea to expire on Saturday.
The Israeli drone strike on a group of people in Gaza City brought the total number of Palestinians killed Tuesday to 11, according to health officials at Shifa hospital.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants in the area.
Separate Israeli strikes earlier Tuesday killed two children, including a 3-year-old, and three adults, an official at the hospital said.
Deadly airstrikes are a near-daily threat in Gaza, where more than 750 Palestinians have been killed by Israel despite a ceasefire with Hamas since October, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Lebanon’s top envoy to the U.S. says the first high-level diplomatic engagement between her country and Israel was “constructive,” but urged an end to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants that has displaced thousands of Lebanese.
After participating in Tuesday’s talks with Rubio and Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Nada Hamadeh Moawad said she had “underscored the need to preserve our territorial integrity and state sovereignty” during the two-hour discussion.
“I called for a ceasefire and the return of displaced persons to their homes,” she said in brief comments released by the Lebanese embassy in Washington.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury sent a letter, viewed by The Associated Press, to financial institutions in China, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, warning about the risks of doing business with Iran. The Treasury Department threatened secondary sanctions against the nations’ banks and accused those countries of allowing Iranian illicit activities to flow through their financial institutions.
The letter states that Iran processed at least $9 billion through U.S. correspondent accounts in 2024 using a series of front companies, most notably in Hong Kong and the UAE.
The Treasury Department’s account on the social platform X posted on Tuesday that financial institutions “should be on notice that the department is leveraging the full range of available tools and authorities and is prepared to deploy secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions that continue to support Iran’s activities.”
A Malawi-flagged oil tanker entering the Strait of Hormuz revised the destination it was broadcasting over its tracking system on Tuesday, according to maritime data. The Rich Starry was the only ship that shipping data firms and maritime analytics trackers reported as entering the blockaded waterway.
On Monday morning, it listed Sohar, Oman, a port just south of the strait, as its destination. By evening, it was broadcasting no destination, according to MarineTraffic, a maritime analytics provider.
The Rich Starry was among several tankers to change their reported destinations. So-called “shadow fleet” ships like the vessel sometimes fly flags of landlocked countries and alter signals or transmit false positions, including to evade sanctions on Iran. Other ships also adjusted their signals to avoid listing Iranian ports, according to shipping publication Lloyd’s List.
U.S. Central Command said no ships transited the strait on Tuesday and did not respond to questions about the shadow fleet vessels.
The State Department says the first high-level meeting between Israel and Lebanon in decades was “productive” and will continue with the aim of launching direct negotiations.
In a statement released after the two-hour session in Washington between Rubio and the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon to the United States, the department said, “All sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue.”
Israel has been fighting Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and demands that the group, which opposed the talks and was not represented, be disarmed.
Guterres said Tuesday’s first Israeli-Lebanese meeting in decades will be very important if the talks create a change in their actions.
“The truth is that Hezbollah and Israel have always helped each other to destabilize the government of Lebanon,” the secretary-general told U.N. reporters Tuesday while the ambassadors of Lebanon and Israel were meeting in Washington with Rubio.
Whenever Israel occupies part of Lebanon, Hezbollah uses it as a pretext to say it can’t disarm and must keep up the resistance, Guterres said, and Israel uses Hezbollah rocket attacks into its territory as a pretext for massive operations against Lebanon.
Lebanon’s government is committed to having the monopoly on the use of force, which implies the disarmament of Hezbollah, Guterres said. “So, it’s time for Israel and Lebanon to be working together instead of Lebanon being the victim” of the negative actions of Hezbollah and Israel.
Leiter, who was the only diplomat to come out and speak after the talks, described the meeting among the U.S., Israel and Lebanon in an extremely positive tone despite Rubio earlier describing the gathering as part of a longer “process.”
The ambassador highlighted several areas of consensus while making it clear that Israel needs to see Lebanon “completely” separate itself from Tehran and its proxy Hezbollah.
“The Lebanese government made it very clear that they will no longer be occupied by Hezbollah and Iran has been weakened; Hezbollah is dramatically weakened,” Leiter said. “This is an opportunity.”
A U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that future talks with Iran are under discussion, but no talks have been scheduled at this time.
In a statement to reporters Tuesday after the historic talks, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter praised his Lebanese counterparts for their cooperation in the meeting in Washington despite pressure from Hezbollah not to.
“We discovered today that we’re on the same side of the equation. That’s the most positive thing we could have come away with,” Leiter said. “We are both united in liberating Lebanon from an occupation power dominated by Iran called Hezbollah.”
Israel and the Western-backed Lebanese army have both been unable to forcibly disarm Hezbollah.
The talks between envoys from longtime adversaries began at 11 a.m. EDT and lasted for two hours.
The formal injury count, provided by Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, says three service members have been seriously wounded.
Central Command said two weeks ago in a previous update that 348 troops were wounded, six of them seriously. However, the military command does not provide any further details about the wounded, so it’s unclear whether anyone’s status improves or worsens.
Hawkins says of the total wounded to date, 354 service members have returned to duty.
Since the Iran war began, 13 U.S. service members have been killed in combat.
Guterres said this was the indication he had after a phone call on Tuesday with Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, who is also the country’s foreign minister.
The U.N. secretary-general expressed “enormous admiration” for Pakistan’s initiative to bring peace to the Middle East.
“I consider it essential that these negotiations go on,” Guterres told U.N. reporters, explaining that it would be “unrealistic” for long-lasting and complex problems between the U.S. and Iran to be resolved in a first negotiating session.
“We need negotiations to go on, and we need a ceasefire to persist as negotiations go on,” he said.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that violations of international law are fueling instability and mistrust. Speaking to reporters at the U.N. headquarters, he urged renewed U.S.-Iran talks and respect for freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The secretary-general said he will travel to The Hague, Netherlands, later this week to mark the 80th anniversary of the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest tribunal, and send “a message that in a world moving toward greater fragmentation and sharper power competition, international law is indispensable.”
The bounty was placed on Ahmad al-Hamidawi, secretary general of the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah. In a post on X, in which it published al-Hamidawi’s photograph, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program wrote that the group was “responsible for attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq, the kidnapping of U.S. citizens, and the killing of innocent Iraqi civilians.”
Last month, Kataib Hezbollah kidnapped an American journalist, Shelly Kittleson, in Baghdad, but released her several days later on condition that she leave the country. Officials with the group at the time told The Associated Press that in exchange, the Iraqi government would release several members of the militia who had been previously detained.
Kataib Hezbollah is allied with Lebanon’s Hezbollah but they are two entirely different groups with different leaders.
In a phone call with The New York Post, Trump said a second round of talks with Iran “could be happening over next two days.”
Trump initially told the newspaper they would likely be held somewhere in Europe but later updated that they could be held again in Pakistan’s capital.
An initial round of talks ended without an agreement on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which the White House says is a central sticking point.
The U.S. military claims that it has successfully begun to enforce a blockade of Iranian ports, though at least one ship with apparent ties to Tehran has transited the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said that “during the first 24 hours, no ships made it past the U.S. blockade and 6 merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around to re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.”
While some tankers approaching the strait on Monday did turn around shortly after the blockade took effect, the tanker Rich Starry reversed course again and transited the waterway early Tuesday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that historic Israel-Lebanon peace talks the U.S. is mediating are a “process, not an event,” downplaying expectations for any immediate or significant agreement.
Meeting at the State Department with the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon to the United States, along with the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Rubio said the Trump administration is “very happy” to be facilitating the discussions.
“This is a historic opportunity,” he said. “We understand we’re working against decades of history and complexities” that will not be quickly resolved.
Among the killed are a 3-year-old and a 15-year-old in the two separate strikes in northern Gaza and Gaza City on Tuesday, according to a health official at Shifa hospital, where the casualties arrived.
The Israeli military said it was looking into it.
The first strike on a police vehicle in Gaza City killed four, including the 3-year-old who was standing nearby, and another in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed the 15-year-old, the hospital and the families said.
“What was this little kid’s fault? He was walking in the street,” said Samia al-Malahi, the grandmother of the 3-year-old.
The Gaza Strip has seen near-daily Israeli fire and strikes since a fragile ceasefire was reached in October, and more than 750 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has held separate telephone calls with his Iranian and Pakistani counterparts on Tuesday to discuss the negotiation process, a Turkish official said.
The conversation with Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar centered “on the steps to be taken in the days ahead,” the official said.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity as required by protocol, did not provide further details.
— By Suzan Fraser
Israeli strikes have killed a total of 2,124 people during the six-week war, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Among them are 254 women, 168 children and 88 health workers. Another 6,921 have been wounded.
Israel has halted its strikes in Beirut since last Wednesday, when a massive barrage on the capital drew international outcry, but strikes and ground fighting have continued in the country’s south.
The war in Lebanon started on March 2, when the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired missiles across the border, two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar received a call Tuesday from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who appreciated Pakistan’s “constructive role” in bringing the United States and Iran to the negotiating table to advance regional peace.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to promoting dialogue and diplomacy to ensure peace and stability in the region.
The incoming fire triggered nonstop drone and rocket alert sirens in Israeli communities near the Lebanese border on Tuesday.
Ahead of the negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in Washington, the first direct talks between the two countries in decades, the Israeli military issued a warning to northern residents to be prepared for a possible increase of fire from Lebanon.
Hezbollah, which is opposed to the direct talks, claimed 26 attacks on northern Israel and on Israeli ground troops in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. It said it won’t stop its attacks until Israel halts its strikes on Lebanon.
As the leaders of China and Spain pledged Tuesday to work to safeguard multilateralism at a time of conflicts including the war in Iran, President Xi Jinping reiterated a phrase he used earlier in the day when meeting the crown prince of Abu Dhabi — he said countries should “oppose the world’s retrogression to the law of the jungle.”
Xi said they should “jointly safeguard genuine multilateralism,” strengthen communication and cooperate closely, during a reception for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the Great Hall of the People.
Sánchez agreed and said China and Spain “can contribute to finding solutions to the various trade tensions that exist, to the geopolitical difficulties and complexities of today’s world, to the wars, to the environmental and social challenges that afflict the world.”
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump spoke about the need to keep the Strait of Hormuz open during a call, Modi said on the social platform X.
Modi said the two leaders “discussed the situation” in the Middle East and “stressed the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and secure.”
The call between Modi and Trump lasted nearly 40 minutes, Indian media reported.
A veiled woman walks through a mass grave where civilians and Hezbollah fighters killed by Israeli airstrikes are temporarily buried in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, meets with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, far left, and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad, far right, at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks outside the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, April 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A man sits next to charred cars and wreckage where a building was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike the previous Wednesday, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A cargo ship sails in the Persian Gulf towards Dubai port as seen from Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo)
Damavand Peak, the highest peak in Iran, is seen overlooking southeastern Tehran, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Damage is visible on a residential building that, according to Iranian authorities, was hit by a strike on March 4 during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, in southeastern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A man drives his motorbike with a poster on its windshield depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, top, and his father, the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strikes on Feb. 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters outside the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, April 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A man flashes a victory sign as he carries an Iranian flag in front of an anti-U.S. billboard depicting the American aircrafts into the Iranian armed forces fishing net with signs that read in Farsi: "The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, The entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground," at the Eqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution Square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman reacts at the site of a damaged residential building after it was struck by a projectile fired from Lebanon, in Nahariya, northern Israel Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Mohammed, 8, cries next to the coffin of his father, Hussein Makkah, during the funeral of 13 state security officers killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
