I never said it would be cheaper, I was just providing some ideas for
him as to how to obtain representative costs.

Companies like ours can provide him un-biased advise. We've been
doing very detailed aircraft studies for our clients for over 10
years. See www.le-aviation.com Quick and dirty numbers can be
obtained from companies such as www.conklindd.com and Pro Pilot
Magazine produces a planning guide once a year that can give you some
idea.

Another big reason nowadays is security for corporate executives. And
if you consider the cost per hour of a CEO in the equation, then often a
corporate aircraft will save the company money compared to using public
transportation and the additional time that consumes. Keep in mind that
many CEO's make upwards of $1MM annually. If you figure 2,000 working
hours, that is $500/hour. If you add 4-6 hours to every trip for the
CEO to take an airline flight, that is a fair chunk of change. It may
still not make the corporate airplane more cost effective, but combined
with the other advantages you list above, it can make the decision much
more logical.

And if you use a fractional ownership program, it gets even better.


Matt

Like I said, it's not a money issue, but others such as security like
you said, even though the security on commercial aircraft is better
than on corporate. You just know who your passengers are on the
corporate aircraft. Look at it any way you want, but money is never
the justification.

Think about it this way - You can't fly an aircraft at a direct
operation cost of $4,000 per hour or so and save money flying a $500
per hour person. Fractional's are somewhat better if you fly under
about 300 hours per year, but you still pay a substantial monthly
management fee and an occupied per-hour fee. An advantage to
fractional is you don't pay for deadheads on domestic flights.

The average corporate aircraft fly's about 360 hours per year with a
few upwards of 1000. Multiply that by the D.O.C.'s and the variable
costs and you can see it adds up fast. A guy that earns ONLY $1M per
year can't afford to play that game.

To all us poor people, the cost of something or what we can save may
be all-important, but to a corporation or the mega-wealthily, trust
me, it's a lot further down the list. These aircraft are generally
used for very good reasons, but saving money is not one of them.

Don


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