Corporate Air Charter Alternatives Are Available
Posted by killerwhale | Filed under aviation
Using a standard corporate air charter is expensive. Number of factors add to why, but the following are some options to lowering costs.
Very Light Jets Ownership. The idea that small jets would drive down the capital carrying cost of airplanes, to a level that allowed a great number more to be purchased and utilized, was made highly popular by very light jets. First introduced in 2002, a number of factories including Cessna, Eclipse Aviation, and Embraer, continue to produce them. Point-to-point private aviation is a new industry, that will be made possible through the production of smaller, faster, less expensive jets, according to the manufacturers of VLJ aircraft. According to individuals outside of the aircraft manufacturing business, however, VLJs will not become widely used commercially, but will only allow an increase in the number of private individuals in the upper income bracket, to purchase them. There was an attempt for a corporate air charter development using VLJ aircraft called air taxi. It is a concept that is not gone yet.
Fractional Ownership. Private airplane ownership and use was made popular in the 1990s by fractional ownership programs. Through these programs, individuals could purchase a portion of an aircraft, usually somewhere between 1/16 and 1/2, and then share the flight costs, fuel charges, management fees, and per flight-hour charge. As these programs gained popularity, regulations emerged to control fractionally owned aircraft companies in the U.S.
Jet Cards. Air travelers can use a corporate air charter style program by depositing money in a debit card type account, through jet membership. Jet charter brokerages and fractional companies started to provide pre-pay debit accounts to be used on specified aircraft models, for per-hour private airplane charters around 2002 – 2005, which led to the widespread use of jet cards. With a pre-payment amount of approximately $120,000 – $500,000, customers would have access to a predetermined number of flight hours on a specific model of airplane.
Share-Ride. In the industry of on-demand corporate air charter, Shared-Ride Private Jet Service is a recent addition, providing corporate air charter in the larger Eastern U.S. markets, on a pay-by-the-seat basis. Through Shared-Ride, passengers intermix on private jets and steer clear of the biggest airports by utilizing smaller private local airports. You may even find that the prices for seats through this service, may be similar to that of a full-fare commercial ticket, when the airports that they use function only as spokes by airlines, and all of the seats on the private jet are full. A number of per-seat charter services are getting in on the environmentally friendly trend, by advertising that they are “greener”, siting the fact that they are cheaper than a traditional private plane charter, and can increase the likelihood of fewer jets in the skies.
Helicopter Ownership. There has also been a surge in the use of small helicopters, able to carry 4 – 12 passengers. Purchasing one is much less expensive than an airplane, and landing options are far greater, as no air strip is needed. They cannot travel as far as an airplane, though, and you will not arrive as fast as if you had flown on a fixed-wing aircraft.