I was sitting across the table from prospective clients at lunch recently talking about the two aircraft they own.  We were discussing the opportunity to put one of these aircraft into charter service since it was not being used enough by the owner and selling at this point was not the best option.

One of my lunch guests is an industry veteran pilot who has been flying corporate jets since the 1960’s when Bill Lear first produced the Learjet.  He has been in corporate aviation as well as the aircraft charter business and has flown thousands of hours with executives and entertainers alike in the back of his aircraft.  The other guest was the financial manager for the aircraft owner and comes from the perspective of the cost side of our business.

The discussions migrated to the costs of this business and the question that comes up so often - does this business aviation make economic sense to those who own corporate jets and those who use them?

I made the statement that from a pure economic rationale, the corporate jet may not be the best investment. I was speaking about buying an aircraft to put into commercial service as a charter aircraft. The seasoned pilot was quick to correct me that what we offer is a tool that creates time and, that if you look at an executive’s time value, it makes perfect sense.  He was speaking from the perspective of the user of the asset and not the commercial owner of the asset - and he is right.  What we sell is time with a measure of privacy, security and first class treatment thrown in to make it a more pleasurable experience.  But, at the core, it is still about the value of time.  

I asked the question of these two guests, “Does anyone ever want to go back and fly on the airlines once they have experienced riding on a corporate jet?”  The answer I got was the same one I get every time I ask that question – a resounding NO!

Setting aside the economics of business aviation and speaking only of the pure experience, corporate and charter aircraft provide a service that people really like, especially in comparison to the alternative of the airlines.  In fact people don’t just like our form of air travel; they love it and are passionate about it.  Could it be that deep down these people put a high value on that most precious of resources – time?

The airlines have tried to emulate what we do by providing service extras like pre-boarding for premium fliers, but you can’t turn a pumpkin into a carriage, you can’t turn a bus ride into a limousine experience, and the airlines can’t save you the time that we can.