Business Case for Corporate Flight Departments

[Realms09]

If a company decides it needs to avoid airline travel in order to increase executive productivity, what is the argument for creating its own flight department with its own aircraft rather than utilizing a service such as NetJets?

 

[SteveC]

Cost. There is a point where it is cheaper to have your own flight department rather than pay frax prices. Not sure where that break point is though. Maybe 200 - 300 hours per year (?), depending upon mission profile, aircraft used, etc.

Might try NBAA (National Business Aircraft Association) for some data.

 

[NJA_Capt]

If a company decides it needs to avoid airline travel in order to increase executive productivity, what is the argument for creating its own flight department with its own aircraft rather than utilizing a service such as NetJets?

<25 hrs/yr you're better off with charter
>500 hrs/yr you need your own plane.

NetJets has owners that fly 25 hours/year and we have owners that fly 2000+ hrs/yr.

The argument for productivity isn't necessarily one for fractional vs ownership. A company needs to look at its mission and needs. If a company is based in a small town and it takes ground travel and several airline flights to reach a meeting, an airplane will save hours worth of lost productivity.

Fractional is NOT cheap. In many cases, it is more than all out ownership. As a matter of fact, our Marquis shares are more than charter OR NetJets Ownership. The benefit that owners pay for is an invisible airplane. When they call it, it comes. When they get off of it, it "disappears." They don't have to worry about maintenance schedules, pilot salary, hangar rent, or aircraft availability.

Another benefit is the availability of multiple aircraft. If a company owns "a plane" and it is in the shop for a week/month, their flying stops. If they have a plane with 8 seats and they need to move 12 people, they are out of luck. With NetJets, if their plane is in the shop, another one shows up. If they need to move more people, we send two small planes or one larger plane. If they need a long range airplane or a shorter range plane, we can substitute one.

Many passengers like to have "their" pilots and don't like different pilots each day/week. Some don't care. NetJets strives to provide a consistent product among pilots. It's hard to do with 3000 pilots, but we try. With a charter, you don't always know what you are going to get.