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What is Private Aviation?
Jamie Cheng, Helium Report
Perhaps the largest appeal of private aviation is that it’s not commercial aviation; it avoids the drudgery, rigidity, inefficiency, inconvenience and even humiliation of modern commercial carriers and airports. Benefits are plentiful and substantive, though not always easily quantified.
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You buy a “share” of a plane, with the price pro-rated from the market price of a full aircraft. As a fractional owner, you have guaranteed access (50–400 hours annually, depending on your share size) to that plane with as little as four hours’ notice. Fractional owners pay a monthly maintenance fee and an “occupied” hourly operating fee. The latter is charged only when you or your guest is in the plane, not when the plane is flying to pick you up, or returning to base after dropping you off.
You have access to the full fleet of planes and may upgrade or downgrade for specific flights. At the end of your five-year term, you sell your share back to the company for fair-market value, less a re-marketing fee. A variety of factors may effect the fair market value calculation, and your bottom-line cost is highly dependent on the sell-back process.
On a raw numbers basis, it may be difficult to justify private aviation. If you use your plan allotment judiciously and fill the plane for every flight, you may approach a per-seat equivalent of full-fare first-class commercial travel. To make the numbers more supportive, you’ll need to quantify some of the intangibles below. Private-aviation providers and industry associations have created their own spreadsheets to incorporate productivity and other gains. Not surprisingly, these formulae show private aviation as a major cost savings for companies and an obvious choice for individuals.
Helium Report agrees directionally with that conclusion, but suggests that you make your own assessment based on your wealth and the value of your time, energy, productivity and peace of mind. Even if you have sufficient cash to preserve these without much thought, it’s worth enumerating the benefits for your spouse, CFO, financial advisor and even yourself.
Top 10 Benefits of Flying Private
- Flexibility in destinations
- Avoid crowded commercial terminals
- Flexibility in scheduling and flying
- Streamlined airport process
- Time savings & in-flight productivity
- Business entertaining
- Special cargo handling
- Security
- Five-star service
- Ego
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