Aircraft Managment

FlyMarines09

FlyMarines09

Well-Known Member
I am getting more and more interested on the topic. We had a small discussion on it last weekend, but I've come up with some more questions.
I really can't find very much useful information on the subject. Can someone explain to me how aircraft management works? How do aircraft owners find companies to manage their aircraft? How are the contracts set up?

Let's say I had a air taxi or air charter company, and I wanted to fly TBM-850's, Citation 525's and Citation 510's. I got a loan for my TBM, and wanted to manage other people's Citations. How would I find those people and how would both parties set that agreement up? What are the tax benefits?

It's always been my dream to own a charter company, so sorry for all of the questions, I'm just curious as to how some of the logistics work.

Thanks in advance
 
Basically you can have a month to month contract with a individual to oversee maintenance, updates, crew scheduling and dispatching of the aircraft. You could charge them a rate based on hours flown or a flat monthly rate.

Charter is a tough business to get into. It can take up to two years to get approved. Pro is that owners can get out of paying excise tax on a new airplane if its put on charter.

It really comes down to networking at your local airport and making a reliable name for yourself.
 
Unless you have an established charter or aircraft management biz, it is all about who you know and who is willing to give you a break. It seems like that many charter/management companies grew out of existing fuel only FBOs and that makes sense as you have an existing business relationship (selling them fuel, providing good customer service and amenities, etc) that they can build from.
Arrangements similar to a leaseback to a flight school are popular with aircraft owners who need/want the aircraft but don't use it very often (rich guys who own a king air, for example) as it can reduce the cost of ownership for them while maintaining it's availability.
 
I don't know everything you will need to make your operation work, but I do have two things to offer here. If you aren't a big company that offers management services, then it is going to come down to being at the right place at the right time, and like someone else said, knowing the right people locally/regionally. This might not be true if you have some capital to start with so you can launch a convincing program with a nice website and a few employees.

And as far as the management contract goes, they vary a lot, but one thing you will need to think about is that the FAA requires the charter certificate holder to have operational control over at least one of each type of aircraft on the certificate. That means that one owner of each type of aircraft will have to be willing to relinquish all authority over scheduling to you, at least technically. That doesn't mean that you couldn't coordinate with the owner and accommodate his schedule, but on paper you would have the final say.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll look deeper within the NBAA. lol sounds kinda political. I'm used to playing games like that.
 
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