Flight Options, lovingly referred to as FLOPS to many pilots and crew, has seen its share of hardships. Many current and former employees say that former CEO Michael Scheeringa created a work environment considered to be “toxic.” Issues with pay, broken aircraft, and scheduling were not uncommon, an opinion shared by many disgruntled aviation professionals. The company had a high rate of attrition and financial woes leading to massive furloughing of pilots and other personnel. This resulted in many seeing them as nothing more than a “bottom feeder” unable to compete with the stiffer competition, such as NetJets and FlexJet. “There are far more negative stories being spread throughout the grapevine about this company than positive ones,” says a pilot who will remain anonymous.

Flight Option’s former CEO is now President at Signature Flight Support. Some pilots have lingering bitter feelings which they have directed towards one of their frequently visited FBOs, Signature, solely because of who their newly enacted President is. Due to negative experiences, some are not shy about expressing extreme dislike of their former CEO, even joking (or maybe not!) about not wanting to purchase fuel at Signature.