Stratus Financial Helps Fund Your Dreams of Taking Flight through Pilot Student Loans

By William Mullane by USA Today

Being a pilot is a childhood dream for many – sitting in a cockpit full of cool gadgets and devices, wearing a stylish cap, soaring through the skies, and traveling to various places sounds like a wonderful job for many kids. If you ask a current pilot, many of them will say they’ve dreamed about this for a long time.

However, there are many barriers between aspiring pilots and their wings. The largest of these is that flight school is expensive. Training and licensing costs for commercial pilot certification can be upwards of $90,000, making it unaffordable for most from working- and middle-class backgrounds. Due to a longstanding pilot supply shock worsened by the COVID pandemic, commercial pilots are in high demand right now, with many airlines offering signing bonuses and other benefits just to retain and recruit personnel.

There is no shortage of people dreaming of becoming a pilot, but there is a persistent shortage of qualified pilots. This problem can only be addressed by making it possible for more aspiring pilots to undergo training and licensing and quickly fill the demand. If the financial bottleneck is solved, it’s guaranteed that the number of student pilots will rapidly grow.

Seeing this opportunity in the market, Brandon Martini and Anthony Geraci, two certified pilots and flight instructors, launched Stratus Financial in 2020. The company is a pioneering lending firm that seeks to address the financial shortfall for aspiring aviators, allowing them to take to the skies. Brandon has a Commercial Pilot Certification with Multi-Engine Land and Sea, Single-Engine Land and Sea, and Instrument Rating. In addition, he is a Flight Instructor rated to teach Single and Multi-Engine Instruments. Anthony is a Commercial Pilot rated in Multi-Engine, Single-Engine, and Instrument, and a Ground Instructor rated to teach Advanced Ground and Instrument.

According to the founders, Stratus Financial began operating in the middle of the COVID pandemic, when aviation came to a halt. Planes were being retired en masse and thousands of pilots were either furloughed, retired, or outright fired. Despite this, Stratus was able to fill in the demand through student pilots’ access to instructional funding and fast traction built by flight schools.

As a company founded by pilots for pilots, Stratus Financial seeks to help aspiring pilots achieve their flight dreams and turn their passion into a career as swiftly as possible through their flight school loan programs.

Stratus Financial can approve student loans in 14 days or less, with transparent terms and flexible repayment options. Being the first private lender in aviation to provide near-instant credit approval, applications have increased by 616% year over year. It also does not require a downpayment and the borrower can use a co-borrowers credit profile as the means of approval, rather than their own.

According to Stratus, other loan programs require flight schools to underwrite the risk of borrowers defaulting on their student loans, making the schools hesitant to take on students. In contrast, Stratus Financial offers a no-shared risk model, transforming the way many flight schools approach funding. It has partnered with more than 200 flight schools across 35 US states and territories, including Puerto Rico.

According to Brandon, Stratus Financial understands the unique needs of the aviation community – from the students to the pilots, to the flight schools – due to the founders’ extensive experience in the industry. This means Stratus Financial is well-positioned to provide an equitable long-term solution to the pilot shortage crisis.

“Many people dream of a fulfilling career as a pilot, but the sky-high training costs have placed it out of reach for people who don’t come from wealthy families,” Brandon says. “We know what it feels like to struggle to finance your passion. Stratus Financial helps flight school become attainable, providing a diverse range of financial products to fit people’s unique needs. We believe we’re not just a lending company. Rather, we’re a dream facilitator, helping you fund your dreams of taking flight.”

Investing involves risk and your investment may lose value. Past performance gives no indication of future results. These statements do not constitute and cannot replace professional investment or financial advice.