Owning vs. charter vs. airlines

"Mike" wrote in message
...

Will it ever be the most reliable? The airlines have more planes to
swap around if something breaks, for example. And the private jet is
subject to most of the same air-traffic delays, isn't it?

Let me preface this by saying that I am by no means an expert. I
think with some fractional ownership jets, you have a choice between
several.

I believe Gulfstream and Cessna have replacemnt (loaner) programs if your G
or Citation is down for some reason.

I've had far fewer availability problems with my Bonanza than I did when I
did the airline (United) shuffle.

Therefore, I think reliability would be less of an issue. I
also think that air traffic control can subject private aircraft to
the same delays as commercail.

They can, and do. According to APOA, GA serves over 19,000 airports, the
airlines serve 374 with scheduled service and only 29 major hubs.
http://aopa2.org/special/newsroom/facts.html


However, our city has 2 airports. One
downtown with mostly private aircraft and one large interanational
airport. I have been 16th in line for takeoff from the international
airport, but it is rare that a lot of aircraft are moving or taking
off at the same time at the downtown airport.

How fast can you be out the front gate of your GA airport compared with the
same factor at your airline/hub? My best time was 11 minutes at Rapid City
(RAP) SD. Best on the airline? Maybe 30 minutes.