Starting a 91 Flight Department

N519AT

Ahh! This is how I change this!
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Has anyone ever approached a company (who you have no internal connections with, you do not work there) and tried to sell them on buying an airplane/starting a flight department? How did you do it? Any tips?

I'm not seriously looking to try this anytime soon, but with the job market the way it is I might have to consider trying to create a job for myself in the future when I finish up all of my ratings.

I thought there might have been an old thread already posted about this topic, but I couldn't find anything.
 
Interesting ... my company (HSN) is rather large for not having a flight department. Wonder if I could sell them on it.
 
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Has anyone ever approached a company (who you have no internal connections with, you do not work there) and tried to sell them on buying an airplane/starting a flight department? How did you do it? Any tips?

I'm not seriously looking to try this anytime soon, but with the job market the way it is I might have to consider trying to create a job for myself in the future when I finish up all of my ratings.

I thought there might have been an old thread already posted about this topic, but I couldn't find anything.


You should talk to Citation Kid. :)
 
Yeah, without being a member you won't get a lot of the answers to questions, but at least you can get an idea on what kind of questions you need to learn about. Things like:

Do you know how to show the prospective client company that you can save them money by owning their own aircraft? Do you know what questions that you need to ask them to allow you to make such a claim? Do you know the costs involved in business aviation, both source and amount? Do you know how to analyze their business travel and determine what portions would be good to switch to owned aircraft versus airline? Do you know the rough break even points for fractional share ownership versus wholly owned, and how many hours a year are needed to cost justify each? Do you know how to figure out the total hourly cost for THEIR employees in order to cost justify the time savings that is the primary advantage of business aviation? Do you know the legal and liability ramifications for a company that operates a flight department? Do you know what needs to be implemented to protect them in case of, God forbid, a plane crash with fatalities?

That's a start on some of the things you would need to learn about. I suggested the NBAA site because you can go through all the different sections and at least get an idea of what other kinds of questions you need to learn about without actually having to learn all the answers, if you know what I mean? Get an idea of what all is involved first, then decide if it's something that makes sense for you to pursue or not. Then if you decide to go ahead you can spend some money to join organizations like NBAA and get many of those questions answered by people that have gone before you.

Please don't take this post as negative and trying to dissuade you. This is just a heads-up that there is a TON of things that you need to do homework on before trying to convince a company to set up a business aviation department. I'm a firm believer that there are a lot of companies out there that could save themselves money and gain a competitive advantage by operating a flight department (or buying a fractional share, or chartering...) but haven't been fully exposed to how business aviation is a tool that can be used to their advantage.

To reiterate, my suggestion would be to write down all of the topics that are involved. Feel free to post them here and we'll try to help steer you along the way. It will take a lot of work, but it could well be worth it.
 
Awesome new thread. I'm going to chime in and bring a few more questions. I've actually been working for awhile now on figuring out the best to talk to some companies about investing in the whole... business aviation thing. I've really been enlightened and taken a lot of the good info given on here (and other sites... but shhhh) So thank you all. I guess I'll cut to the chase, I've got enough numbers and reasons to tell anybody how, if you and your company/ empolyees travel alot, it helps everybody by having and owning your own aircraft. I guess right now I'm looking for the best way to present it, and to deal w/ the legal issues. I think right now and where I'm at (location) it might take a couple companies to get on board to share an airplane. I've been trying to do all the legal research, but you know the FAA, it can be kind of mind numbing. I'd really like to get a couple companies involved and invest in an airplane and let us take care of the rest. IE crew, maintenance, and everything else you can imagine. I guess what I'm thinking is let us worry about all the issues while the company jut pays the bill and gets to utilize the aircraft as much as possible. To start I'd like to keep it all 91, and just fly and work with/ for the companies. I and a fellow pilot of mine both have well beyond 135 mins so taking it that route isn't and issue (other than the time, money. and headache involved), Any help would be AWESOME. Feel free to PM me or anything with any good advice or any questions on info I've already thought of.
Thankya!!
 
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