Options To Consider For Private Jet Travel
When taking a look at the options available to fulfill your private jet travel needs, you might be given recommendations about the various options of private jet travel available by someone that has never personally evaluated your travel needs. That is a frequent occurrence in the aviation industry, as there are plenty of sales people that try to oversimplify what is really a more complex question - "Which private jet travel option is best for my situation?"
Trying to answer this question with as little confusion as possible has led to the creation of a guideline that really is effective for only a few people in specific circumstances. In fact, there are so few people whose needs are met with this particular formula that it has become a myth.
The rule states one should choose between aircraft charter, jet cards, fractional or whole aircraft ownership determined by a simple formula of hours flown per year. The rule of thumb goes something like the following:
1. If you fly privately less than 25 hours per year, you should charter.
2. If you fly privately anywhere between 25 to 50 hours per year, you need to buy a jet card or block charter.
3. When you fly privately between 50 and 200 hours per year, you need to use fractional (guess which marketers created this rule of thumb?)
4. If you fly privately more than 200 hours a year you should buy your own aircraft.
The problem with this simplistic formula is the fact that it does not consider your specific needs and assumes that your desires are the same as everybody else's. To make a fully informed decision, you will need to consider many more variables than just the number of hours flown a year. For example, if your business has a requirement for 20 hours of flight time per year, but the flights all originate in different cities, your needs will conflict with the advice to use charter if your local charter operator doesn't have any aircraft based in these cities.
If you fly 100 hours per year, but most of the trips originate from one particular airport or region and come back within a day or two, once again this recommendation won't make the best fit for you, as a fractional share or jet card is going to be too expensive as their model is dependent on higher, "one-way" pricing. Needless to say there are many other considerations as well, like the convenience factor, tax benefits, availability, and so on that cannot possibly be considered within the confines of a one-size-fits-all guideline.
When approached for assistance in deciding on the best private travel option for a client, I first identify the client's needs. How often does the client fly? Are most flights one way or round trip? Do all trips start and end at the same place? Will the client ever have need for multiple aircraft at the same time, perhaps flying multiple teams in various parts of the country to various locations at the same time? What is the client's tax situation as it pertains to depreciation of the asset if a share or whole aircraft were bought?
Are there passive income issues? What is the client's most important concern when it comes to traveling? Does the client prefer to have a relationship with the flight crew or keep them at arm's length? Next, a complete mission analysis is conducted, which involves a financial review of the various options available. On rare occasion the guideline will match my advice, but the majority of the time the guideline leads one to a lot more expensive options than necessary.
Don't be fooled by the myth that your particular needs can be met by a guideline. Using a thorough, in-depth analysis of your travel needs, a consultant can structure one or several private jet travel alternatives in combination to create a solution that truly fits your requirements.
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