Betting Big in the Deep End

How a 27-Year-Old Entrepreneur Is Shaking Up the Private Jet Brokerage Industry

On her second day running CieloBlu, Kayla DiLullo stood at an aviation airshow, responsible for a brand-new aircraft inventory she had just personally ordered. She was 23 years old, armed with a fresh business law degree, and operating in a high-stakes industry dominated by professionals who had been flying before she was born. By the time the airshow wrapped up, she had sold her first airplane.

It was a proof of concept that silenced any lingering apprehension. Today, operating from a brick-and-mortar headquarters at Chino Airport, the 27-year-old founder and private pilot has turned a single-manufacturer dealership into a diversified, global powerhouse in aircraft sales, acquisitions, and refurbishment advisory.

The growth trajectory is staggering. CieloBlu’s annual sales surged from $800,000 in 2023 to $5.6 million in 2024, followed by $6.2 million in 2025. By mid-2026, the firm had already brought in $16.7 million, putting it on a clear glide path to exceed $25 million by the end of the year. In less than four years, DiLullo has single-handedly engineered more than 50 aircraft transactions, eclipsing $29 million in total volume across piston, turboprop, and multi-million-dollar business-jet markets.

The Pivot From Single Brand to Global Brokerage

CieloBlu didn’t start with private jets. In 2022, DiLullo launched the company as an exclusive West Coast dealership for Tecnam, an Italian aircraft manufacturer. The opportunity came through her father, a seasoned aviation entrepreneur. But DiLullo was fiercely protective of her independence. She wanted the accountability of being her own boss, ensuring her father remained strictly hands-off as a mentor.

“I privately worried that my father might eventually take the driver’s seat,” DiLullo notes, reflecting on the company’s origin. “That was not what I wanted—I wanted a company that was truly my own.”

To navigate the legal complexities of global trade, she fast-tracked her education, earning a specialized business law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.

The true turning point came when DiLullo realized her clients needed more than just factory-new piston planes. They needed someone to source off-market inventory, negotiate complex brokerages, and oversee complicated overhauls.

CieloBlu Sales Trajectory (2023 – 2026 Proj.)

2026 (Proj.) |█████████████████████████ $25M+

2025         |██████ $6.2M

2024         |█████ $5.6M

2023         |█ $800K

Recognizing a market gap, she aggressively pivoted CieloBlu into a multi-tiered corporate model. The firm began putting its own balance sheet to work—purchasing underutilized or neglected aircraft, coordinating mechanical refurbishments with trusted regional facilities, and returning renewed, high-value assets to the global market.

Navigating the Traditional Aviation Landscape

Succeeding in private aviation requires deep trust. It is an industry built on handshakes, legacy relationships, and capital-intensive assets. For a young woman entering the space, the headwinds were cultural.

“One of my greatest challenges has been establishing credibility as a petite, 27-year-old woman in an industry built almost entirely on reputation,” DiLullo says. “Many of the professionals I compete and negotiate with are men who have worked in aviation longer than I have been alive.”

To bridge the gap, she earned her private pilot certificate at age 24—a milestone that provided a crucial operational perspective on the aircraft she sells, even if she views piloting as a baseline trait among her peers rather than a competitive edge.

What truly sets Cieloblu apart is its agility as an independent, owner-operated firm. Free from the constraints of institutional backing, the company can actively pursue unique, non-traditional deals that larger brokerages often pass up. Because she is directly on the ground doing the work, she can make the immediate, hands-on decisions required to jumpstart complex transactions, analyze shifting situations in real time, and pivot quickly to systematically improve operations for her clients.

Today, she runs a lean operation where she acts as the sole salesperson. While an administrative team keeps the office running, DiLullo personally qualifies every buyer, structures every deal, and oversees every pre-purchase inspection. That agility allows CieloBlu to close complex, red-tape-heavy transactions that larger, institutional brokerages walk away from.

The strategy has paid off. Though locked behind strict nondisclosure agreements, CieloBlu’s rolodex spans an elite roster: U.S. senators, professional athletes, defense contractors, major universities, and high-net-worth business leaders.

Capital and Community

As the business scales, DiLullo is channeling CieloBlu’s financial success back into the local community. Through the HLC Foundation, her firm funds critical local law enforcement initiatives in San Bernardino County and the Inland Empire.

Her donations stretch from the practical—like buying custom ballistic vests for police K-9 units—to direct humanitarian aid, supplying police departments with pre-loaded gift cards so officers can immediately purchase food, emergency hotel rooms, or basic household appliances for families in crisis. Most recently, she utilized CieloBlu’s corporate framework to facilitate a massive donation consisting of an aircraft and $100,000 in capital to support the foundation’s long-term deployment.

Looking toward next year, DiLullo is pacing for a $40 million transaction target, fueled by deeper expansion into international mid-size and large-cabin business jets.

“I am the ‘little guy’ doing big things,” says DiLullo. “I built CieloBlu from the ground up without institutional backing… My leadership is personal, resourceful, and results-driven: I do not simply oversee the work, I do the work.”