Matt Hogan

Matt Hogan

Matt Hogan
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FOUNDER & AVIATION SPECIALIST

Matt Hogan

10+ Years in Private Aviation Brokering

2,000+ Completed Charters Across 6 Continents

Chartered 140+ Private Aircraft Types

Core Specialties: Part 135 On-Demand Charter, VIP Airliners, Medevac, Corporate Roadshows & Government Charters

Location: New York, NY & Global Operations

FOUNDER & AVIATION SPECIALIST

Be happy, but never satisfied. Never do anything at 50%. Proactive thinking and attention to detail are what separate the great from the rest.

Matt Hogan was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up between Melbourne and Sydney, Australia before eventually moving back to the United States. His fascination with aviation started young, plane spotting at Sydney Airport and countless hours on flight simulators, reinforced by the amount of time his family spent traveling internationally.

After a competitive swimming career that took him through university and to a 2012 Olympic Trials qualifier, Matt turned to private aviation brokering, combining his love for aircraft with his family's background in the luxury car industry. Over the last ten-plus years, he has closed more than 2,000 charters spanning all six inhabited continents, and has arranged flights on virtually every category of aircraft in the market,  from the smallest King Air turboprops to the largest Boeing Business Jets.

Beyond routine passenger charters, Matt has coordinated medical evacuations from the Marshall Islands, global pet transport, VVIP flights for heads of state, political roadshows during election cycles, and humanitarian repatriations. That range of work has given him a first-hand understanding of what aircraft actually perform reliably on the day, which operators run tight ships, and what philosophy of care distinguishes the ones Hogani Jets is willing to put its name behind.

Matt's approach starts with the outcome. Every trip is planned backward from the moment the client steps off the aircraft, mapping the sequence of decisions and proactive checkpoints that get them there smoothly. The goal on every flight is a client who returns and simply thanks the team for how easy the whole thing was. That standard isn't always achievable on every trip, but it's the one Hogani Jets continues to work toward on every quote, every routing, and every operator selection.

“Ruling the wrong aircraft out at quote time is worth more than switching to the right one at trip time.”

  1. Weather anticipation: Checking multi-day forecasts on origin, destination, and en-route weather, then adjusting departure time by 1-3 hours to beat a frontal system, sea fog, or afternoon thunderstorm cell. That time change could save you countless hours.
  2. Airport curfews: Some fields close at night. Building the whole trip backward from the arrival curfew, rather than forward from a comfortable departure time, seems simple but is frequently missed by operators and brokers until the day prior.
  3. Customs and immigration hours: Timing arrivals and calling to confirm when officers are actually on duty saves hours on the ground and avoids overtime fees. Publicized times change frequently, and your broker should always double check this.
  4. Fuel availability at the destination: Some airports don't stock Jet A or run out during peak periods. Brokers who miss this often surprise the client with a tech stop cost the day before departure. Pricing the tech stop into the quote from the start, or tankering enough fuel with a larger plane for the round trip, avoids that unexpected cost and keeps the trip on schedule.
  5. Hot-and-high performance limits: Aircraft lose payload in heat and altitude. Building margin into the aircraft choice for a summer Aspen or hot Marrakech trip avoids the ugly conversation where luggage gets left behind on the ramp. That's when a larger aircraft like a Falcon 900EX earns its keep.
  6. Ground handler staffing at odd hours: Many FBOs are skeleton-staffed after midnight. Your broker calling ahead ensures someone is on-site with the fuel truck and the doors open.
  7. Maintenance interval verification: Checking that the assigned aircraft won't hit a scheduled inspection immediately prior to or after your trip. Parts get delayed in delivery, and owners decide to move maintenance forward to suit their schedules.
  8. Backup aircraft and contingency planning: For mission-critical trips (funerals, medical, hard business meetings), having a backup aircraft or splitting the mission across two aircraft to solve a duty-time or range problem, can be crucial to ensuring a smooth trip.
  9. Alternate airport selection: Pre-briefing and in-flight diversions for weather happen often. A broker with the right relationships on the ground, or the know-how to identify the next-best airport, helps avoid compounded delays.
  10. Passenger-specific prep: Dietary needs for children, mobility needs for the elderly, pet supplies, wheelchair loading sourced ahead, all should be checked so nothing surprises the crew on the ramp. You should be asking: Has your broker spoken to the fire department for assistance? Have they liaised with ramp access at the FBO? Does the caterer know about every dietary requirement? Every airport is different, communication is key, and every note should be on your itinerary.
  11. Political and security awareness: The nuances that come with VVIP travel can be intricate and delicate to stay ahead of. Privacy, onboard security and firearms, and can't-miss deadlines all add another layer of complication to a trip that needs to run flawlessly. Additionally, knowing when to reroute around unstable airspace or a country whose relations just shifted overnight makes an operator's recommendation paramount. Very few have this experience.
  12. Crew hotel booking during peak season: Some destinations (Aspen at Christmas, Miami during F1) sell out. Having a broker who stays on top of the operator to book crew rest ahead avoids the last-minute scramble. Operators have canceled trips rather than incur the massive cost of scrambling for hotel rooms at the last minute.
  13. Runway weight and payload restrictions: Many airport runways have little-known weight limits that can rule out certain aircraft categories if missed by the operator. Your broker should catch this ahead of time so you avoid having to be re-quoted prior to the trip. Pivoting at the last minute can mean paying more for a smaller aircraft due to limited availability.
  14. Parking and hangar availability at busy airports: Ramp space at popular airports (Nice, Ibiza, Florence, Farnborough) fills up in peak summer. Late bookings often can't get parking at any price. Expect to reposition the aircraft to a quieter nearby field for your stay and have it fly back to pick you up. A broker should anticipate this beforehand so your all-in quote is accurate, and so you don't miss out on a better-value quote from an operator who already has this included.
  15. Peak travel day nuances: Flying out of Aspen or New York at 10:00 AM on the 26th of December is guaranteed to incur ATC delays. Leaving at 7:00 AM? Maybe not. Those ATC delays, coupled with peak-day special event fees, are things your broker should be addressing prior to signing.
  16. Understand the philosophy behind the operator's model: Probably the most crucial factor that determines success. As a client, you should know on every trip whether you are booking with an owner-approved aircraft, floating fleet, empty leg, or fixed-base operator. The differences and consequences on the day can matter a great deal.
  17. Operator experience and pricing transparency: An operator's unfamiliarity with a routing, overflight permits, regional restrictions, and multi time zone duty-time planning can turn a cheaper quote into days of delay. If a quote is well below market, ask why; inexperience with the route is a common hidden cost.
  18. Headwind-leg range performance: A light jet that clears the outbound with margin can run tight on the way back once headwinds and actual payload are factored in. Brokers who don't run weight-and-balance on both legs at quote time surprise clients with a required fuel stop days before departure. If the trip is close to aircraft performance range, ask for passenger and luggage weights, don't make assumptions provided by the operators.
  19. Permit and payment lead time: Some permits medical, remote-region, restricted-airspace won't move until funds and required documentation are in hand. In these stressful scenarios, moving both proactively, rather than waiting for the operator to ask, protects the timeline for time-sensitive missions

Matt shares more lessons from live charter deals on the Hogani Jets blog.

Case Study: Medical Evacuation from the Marshall Islands

A critical medical evacuation from one of the most remote places I'd ever been asked to reach. Medevac operators don't launch without full payment in hand, permit approvals for the Marshalls take days, and only one operator in the region had both the right aircraft and a medical team qualified for the patient's condition.

Before the client wired the deposit, I walked them through what the permit and payment timeline would realistically look like a family in medical crisis panics when the wire hits and nothing appears to move. Setting expectations up front bought the trust to work the problem without constant status calls.

Wire cleared, permits expedited, aircraft launched inside the window a critical patient can wait. The patient was moved.

Case Study: Return of Human Remains

A client's father had passed away in North America and needed to be returned home to the Middle East for burial. The family flew with the casket on the aircraft an emotionally difficult trip that also required last-minute logistics across three countries for crew swaps and overnights.

The first decision was aircraft choice. Not every aircraft handles a casket cleanly — hold dimensions, cabin access, and temperature control all matter. Sourcing the right aircraft on the first pass kept the family in one plan instead of losing 24 hours to re-quoting.

Every country's customs and human-remains documentation was cleared before departure. The family landed on schedule, and the operational side stayed invisible to them.

Case Study: VVIP Head of State Departure from West Africa

A trip for a head of state departing a West African country. The aircraft was inbound from a neighboring nation to collect the VVIP, but on the ground before departure, the local government "lost" the crew's passports and refused to release them. It was a shakedown.

I'd worked the region enough to know it could happen. Ahead of the trip, I'd briefed the operator on how to respond calmly and had a local fixer on standby. When the passports "went missing," we resolved it fast a $1,000 payment and the crew was released. The aircraft launched on time.

Navigating the cultural pressure, protecting the timeline, and keeping the operator willing to fly the sector took every bit of relationship capital I had in the region.

Case Study: Executive Relocation from the US to Pakistan

I originally lost this trip to another broker on price. The relocation went ahead — until the aircraft got stuck in Ireland because the operator hadn't secured Middle East overflight permits and had no experience with the routing. Four days of delay later, the client flew back to the US and called me.

Before quoting the do-over, I verified overflight permits across the entire routing from primary sources,  not the operator's assurance,  and pre-planned two crew swaps and two fuel stops that kept the aircraft inside legal duty windows. The client was delivered to Pakistan on schedule.

Cheaper isn't cheaper if the aircraft can't clear the airspace

Case Study: Emergency Funeral to American Samoa

A client needed to reach a grandfather's funeral in American Samoa with less than 24 hours to get there from Texas. Their previous broker had already burned through two aircraft with maintenance failures, and the remaining window couldn't be covered by a single crew under duty-time limits. American Samoa hadn't even approved landing permits by the time I started planning.

Rather than wait, I filed the permit in parallel with departure and briefed the client on the risk, they'd rather fly toward an unresolved clearance than sit in Texas hoping. I split the mission across two aircraft,  one to LA, one on to Samoa, the same contingency thinking as keeping a backup aircraft on standby, so the duty-time wall never became a client problem. The client made the funeral on time.

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