Up, up and away: in the new world of airport anxiety and long hours of waiting for commercial flights, there is an alternative for busy executives: private aircraft. And you don't need to buy one to take advantage of the benefits - Travel Executive Aviation

South Florida CEO, March, 2003 by Alex Krys

The days of glamorous air travel seem to be long gone. We now approach a trip with apprehension, even contempt. There is no joy in arriving at the airport hours before your flight departs, only to be faced with treatment that involves taking your shoes off, or having someone ask you to step away from your hand luggage and not interfere until they are finished inspecting the dangerous contents.

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The good news is that there is an alternative, which brings back the idea of efficiency to air travel: the use of private planes. Even better: they're no longer just for the chiefs of industry or the rich and famous. There is a proliferation of private plane use for corporate purposes, and not just by the chief executive, but also by senior and middle management.

If you choose to travel via private jet there are several options available. The three principal options are leasing, fractional ownership (the aviation equivalent of vacation timeshares) and full ownership. A simple rule of thumb: lease if you plan to fly 150 hours or less a year, take on part ownership for annual airtime of 150 to 300 hours, and buy the aircraft if you need to travel more than 300 hours annually.

Although expensive--private jets lease for $2,000 to $5,000 per hour, and cost $2 million to $5 million and up to buy--the benefits are numerous. The first factor is convenience. There are no lines or security slowdowns. You show up at the private airport (or the private aircraft area of a commercial airport), leave your car with the Fixed Based Operator or "FBO," and walk with the pilots across the tarmac and onto the plane. The luggage is loaded in the hold and a few minutes later you're in the air. It's just that simple. Add to that geographic convenience: while there are 500 commercial airports in the US, there are 4,500 private airports.

Part of the underlying benefit is the reduced stress from the whole experience--you control the departure time, the plane is there for you and not the other way around--but what is really impressive is the time savings, allowing business travelers to turn overnight trips into day jaunts, or maximizing time while traveling to multiple cities over several days.

The best way to test the experience is to charter an aircraft from one of the several reputable operators in the South Florida area. "When I get first customers, I tell them to charter," says Fabio Alexander, CEO of Miami Executive Aviation, a private flight service company. "They may not like a particular aircraft, and may want to try another. This way they can decide what makes the most travel sense."

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Alexander operates Miami Executive's operations from Opa-Locka Airport, which houses not only the company's aircraft, but those of clients, which are often leased in order to offset expenses for their owners. The facility itself is one of the best in South Florida; in addition to some 45,000 square feet of hangar space, Miami Executive's "waiting room" is really a mini terminal, with a 30-foot atrium, leather couches, even an Enterprise rental car station. Five Breitling wall clocks give times across the country, while (at least during a recent visit) a Mozart piano concerto is piped in through hidden speakers.

"There are two categories of [acquiring] customers," says Mark Gordon, CEO of Presidential Aviation. "The first is a broker system, people who have relationships with high net-worth individuals, entertainers and so forth, who come to us, looking for an aircraft. The other is retail customers, who come directly to us. Some of it is personal travel, but a lot is corporate travel, like a company that's got five people for a meeting in New York and wants to go up and back."

The first item for customers to decide is the type of plane required for the mission. Like cars, private jets come in all types--fast, large, small, luxurious, and so on. Clearly, with aviation, safety is probably the most important factor to consider. Flight equipment on board, the aircraft's maintenance, and the experience and training of the pilots make critical differences in this area.

As for cost, the basic dynamic is that the larger the plane is and the farther it flies, the more expensive it is to charter. The number of people that one needs to take along must be considered, as some of the smaller aircraft have a limited number of seats and luggage space. The age of the aircraft will also make a price difference, though not necessarily a difference in safety--some older models have impressive records.

Cessna, known for its single engine propeller planes, manufactures the Citation family of jets. The Citation X is now the fastest plane after the Concorde, and can travel from coast to coast, shaving as much as a full hour off travel time with speeds just below the speed of sound--Mach.92, or over 600 mph, for 3,200 nautical miles. It is usually configured for eight passengers and is currently the largest of the Citation planes. The rest of the airplanes in the Citation fleet are what the industry calls "light jets," though in some cases the difference between a light jet and a mid-size jet can be blurred. This is the case with the Citation Excel, which has a stand-up cabin but light jet economy, able to travel at 500 mph for 1890 nautical miles. Other smaller Citation Jets include the Encore, Bravo, CJ2 and CJ1.