I had a brief meeting with my CEO last week. Our company spends 80K - 120K
annually on commercial flights. He knows I am a private pilot and he asked
me if I could prepare a comparative analysis of alternatives such as
fractional ownership, outright ownership, leaseback or charter.

I don't know jack about jets. My assumption is that I'm looking at a jet
versus a King Air or similar. We're based in Houston and regularly fly
to
both coasts with 3 - 6 passengers. I am looking at a large, empty
spreadsheet. Many manufacturers and brokers offer breakdowns for their
products but I am looking for a non-biased source for several pieces of
information.


Houston is a well-served city by the airlines. Being in the middle of the
country, you've got good access by jet coast to coast if you're going to major
cities. Since you service Fotune 250 companies, I'd guess that most of your
destinations are well-served also.

It'll be tough to beat the time factor, even counting the inevitable standing
in line with the rabble at the airports. Jetliners are fast. There's not much
in the private sector that's as fast as a 737 and very little that's faster.

Costwise, you're not even going to get close unless compare first class
accomodations and demand luxury travel with a high-level of service. If you're
flying 6 big wigs around, that actually might not come out too bad.

Dispatch rate with the airlines is going to be impossible to match with your
own aircraft. So you'll still be buying tickets sometimes. That's another
reason to look into some sort of demand-based charter or fractional operation.

You could come out ahead if you do a lot of shorter trips, or if you frequently
travel between cities that do not have major airports. You may also do good if
you have to fly a lot of last-minute trips, since the airlines hit you the
hardest for short-notice travel.

One approach that might be interesting is to contact some of the charter and
fractional ownership operations and ask them to do some of the work for you and
come up with a number. Just start with all the flights you booked last year and
ask them to run a comparison, taking into consideration how far in advance you
scheduled.

The other side of the coin is insurance. Many corporate and life insurance
policies have exclusions for air travel on a non-scheduled operation.





--
Dr. Nuketopia
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