Diversifying Vertically: How Benítez Aviation Became a Pymes Model

Captain Carlos Benítez did not wade into entrepreneurship; he was pushed in. He never imagined that becoming a father at 17 and leaving school to open a hamburger cart would lead him to found and run a group of tourism and private aviation companies. Nevertheless, here he is.

A few decades after that first splash, he owns and operates Benítez Aviation, Puerto Rico Helitours and Benítez Flying School. He also built Puerto Rico FBO, a fixed-base operator that provides infrastructure and services for private aircraft at Isla Grande Airport, and sold it in 2024 following a $20 million investment, he said in the latest episode of the El Blueprint podcast.

His path offers a model for the small and midsize businesses, or pymes, that anchor Puerto Rico’s economy. Vertical diversification, expanding into services that complement what a company already does, can be a way for them to grow, especially when customers point the way.

In Benítez’s case, what began as an aviation business has since expanded into a network of complementary services designed around the same clientele. In El Blueprint with Alberto Bacó Bagué, Benítez said that learning how to fail is pivotal to an entrepreneur’s career, but learning how to listen may be even more critical.

Let the customers do the talking

“I started listening and realized there was an unmet need within my own clientele, and I thought, there’s a market here, let’s invest.”

During his flight tours, customers began asking for ground transportation to and from the airport. Others said they wanted to enjoy Puerto Rico from the water. Rather than treat those requests as unrelated, he saw an opportunity to expand his existing business vertically.

He now offers private chauffeur service and an Old San Juan boat tour past El Morro aboard a 53-foot Viking. Weddings, marriage proposals and gender reveals have also become part of his private helicopter charter offerings.

Metro reported in January that his helicopter shuttle to the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián began when a friend stuck in traffic asked for a ride. Ten years later, Benítez said, the service uses six helicopters and charges $75 per passenger one way.

Prior to becoming a pilot, Benítez recalls going broke several times before turning a profit selling hamburgers, a journey that shaped his approach to risk. Today he stresses that studying the market, evaluating investments and understanding customers are essential steps before making a move. But he also believes entrepreneurs must accept that no amount of preparation eliminates uncertainty.

He did not know how he would keep paying his employees while he trained for his pilot’s license. He recalls asking his wife, Belkys Pérez, now co-founder and president of Puerto Rico Helitours, whether it was the right call. He told Bacó that his family’s support has guided every big decision.

For the thousands of small firms in Puerto Rico weighing their next move, the takeaway is that growth does not always require a new market. Sometimes it requires listening more closely to the one they already have.

Long before aviation became part of his career, he simply wanted to serve the island and other people. That led to a early career as a police officer, and it was there that he found his true passion for flying.

For 12 years he served in the Puerto Rico Police, first as an agent and later as a pilot in the air unit of the United Rapid Action Forces (FURA, by its Spanish acronym).

During those years he became fascinated with the aviation industry and decided to offer his own private experiences, which drove him headfirst into the tourism world.

The vertical model

During the conversation, Bacó pointed to Benítez’s evident strategy: related or vertical diversification, in which a business expands into services that complement its existing operations.

Rather than entering completely unrelated industries, Benítez leverages existing customer relationships, brand recognition and operational knowledge.

A client who books a private flight, for example, can also use the company’s ground transportation and maritime services.

“It’s the perfect model,” Bacó said. “You align your client base, everything feeds off of each other, and that creates exponential value.”

For pymes, the logic is transferable. A company already knows its customers, has earned their trust and carries fixed costs that adjacent services can help absorb, which makes the next product cheaper to test than a leap into a new industry.

A private aviation market with room to grow

Benítez operates in a segment that is investing heavily in capacity. Isla Grande, officially Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport, is the island’s main business aviation hub, with a 5,539-foot runway that handles midsize to large business jets, according to Aviation Week. Its tenants are mostly Puerto Rico-based.

Modern Aviation, which bought Puerto Rico FBO in February 2024, now operates five hangars totaling 152,458 square feet at Isla Grande and invested $17 million in two new ones, Aviation Week reported in May 2025. A Modern executive said customers were “lining up” for them before they were built.

The magazine also reported a planned $27.5 million runway reconstruction, funded by a Federal Aviation Administration grant and $2.7 million from the Puerto Rico Ports Authority.

The sale did not take Benítez out of the airport. Benítez Aviation kept its aircraft management and charter business and became one of Modern’s largest customers in the region, with Benítez saying the deal let him focus on growing aircraft management.

Capacity is also growing at the main airport. According to published reports, BlueSky began construction this year on a $54 million fixed-base operation at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, due in 2028, which developers say will replace hangar space lost after hurricanes Irma and Maria. Globally, private jet departures reached a record 3,878,336 in 2025, up 4.6%, according to WingX data.

Riding the tourism wave

The customers Benítez listens to are arriving in growing numbers. The Foundation for Puerto Rico’s Visitor Economy Performance model estimates that the island receives about 6 million visitors a year, spending more than $8 billion, and projects 8 million visitors and about $12 billion by 2030.

The model puts average daily spending per visitor at $264 in 2024 and $280 in 2025, and counts more than 100,000 direct leisure and hospitality jobs, up to 115,000 including visitor-dependent work in transportation, retail, tours and culture.

Higher-spending visitors are the ones who book helicopter tours, private drivers and yacht outings, which is the clientele Benítez’s group is built around.

The lesson for pymes

For Benítez, building a business has never meant following a fixed path. From selling hamburgers as a teenager to developing ventures across aviation, maritime experiences and ground transportation, his trajectory reflects an ability to recognize opportunities, adapt to changing circumstances and take calculated risks.

While the industries have changed, his strategy remains the same: understand your customer, evaluate the opportunity and be willing to take the leap.

“Many people don’t want to fail because of their ego,” he reflected. His approach is to ask a different question: “What if I succeed?”

For the thousands of small firms in Puerto Rico weighing their next move, the takeaway is that growth does not always require a new market. Sometimes it requires listening more closely to the one they already have. You can learn more about Captain Carlos Benítez’s journey, lessons and entrepreneurial philosophy in the fifth episode of El Blueprint’s second season, now on YouTube, Spotify and in this article above.