Flying Private

Farhad Heydari September 18, 2006

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Aerion, a Reno-based aeronautical engineering firm, has announced plans to build what it hopes will be the world's first supersonic business jet, complete with delta wings, à la Concorde. At Mach 1.5, the sleek aircraft would cut the travel time between Paris and New York to just four hours, pacing a Gulfstream V by three hours; a one-stop hop from New York to Tokyo would last just nine-and-a-half hours.

And then there are the players in the burgeoning air-taxi industry, including Magnum Jet and DayJet, which, come December, plans to operate Eclipse Aviation's Eclipse 500 light jet as a taxi service first in Florida and then in the Southeast. That craft is just one of a handful of so-called very light jets (VLJs) that are now hitting the market to join the ranks of Premier 1 and Diamond D-Jet, all of which cost a fraction of what normal private jets usually retail for.

All this bodes well for an industry that has finally matured in earnest -- with part-time ownership schemes and pay-as-you-fly programs that are as easy to decipher as they are attractive to join. But if you're considering any of these, says Butler, beware. "It's great having so many options, but if you choose the wrong one, your mistake can cost you hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars."

And Butler also reminds his clients that private jet travel is an investment -- one that provides maximum flight time on safe and well-maintained aircraft at minimum cost. "Frankly, the service sells itself. Once you've flown this way, it's really hard to go back to the Delta counter," he says.

See our slide show of private jet firms.

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