Owning vs. charter vs. airlines

In article , Mike
wrote:

€ On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 01:21:11 -0600, "Scott Jensen"
€ wrote:
€
€ There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
€ someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point be
€ when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet and
€ employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
€ will the airlines always be cheaper?
€
€ More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
€ gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
€ their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for the
€ Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be an
€ expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
€ question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying a
€ private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
€ also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
€ would make economic sense?
€
€ Scott Jensen
€
€ I am pretty sure that private jet ownership will lose in a pure cost
€ comparison. However, to make a fair comparison, one would have to
€ consider many factors. What is the passenger's time worth? Is there
€ convenient regular scheduled service? etc. A round trip first class
€ ticket from the US to Europe can be upwards of $10,000 if purchased at
€ the last minute. Or you could buy your own Boeing Business Jet for
€ $40,000,000. Even if only used for one trip, the BBJ could have a net
€ lower cost. If the passenger takes the commercial flight for $10,000
€ and the airline gets him there late and he loses the $4 billion dollar
€ deal, then you can see why he would be better off spending the money
€ for the BBJ.

$4 billion dollar deals are pretty rare.