Getting private jet charter right

An Ask the Expert feature with PrivatAir

With private jet travel on the up, Greg Thomas, CEO of PrivatAir, lifts the lid on the advantages of chartering your own aircraft.

These days many travellers are re-evaluating their travel options, forcing them to think smarter about why, when and how they travel. Some companies and individuals may have recently decided to sell their own aircraft, due to the economic downturn. Others may find the current route slashing and capacity reduction policies adopted by many of the world’s commercial airlines have led to greater inconveniences and unnecessary delays in their travel plans. Either way, private charter is now proving to be the alternative.

With charter air travel, you control your schedule, giving you the freedom to plan a trip around your own needs and nobody else’s. You can also control the cost. Since rates differ according to the aircraft type and performance capabilities, you pay only for the size of aircraft that you need on each particular journey, taking into account factors such as the number of passengers, distance to be travelled, amount of baggage and required services on-board.

For the benefit of those readers new to jet charter, aircraft are typically chartered on a flight-hour basis, with extras such as landing fees, basic catering and any crew travel expenses, such as hotel rooms, supplementary to this.

Spoilt for choice
Charter operators come in many different shapes and sizes. Full-service operators have diverse fleets, sizeable infrastructures, and a professional staff of aviation management professionals, meteorologists, security personnel, maintenance staff, customer service representatives and trip planners. Many small operators own a single aircraft and charter it to offset the costs of ownership. Negatives regarding charter are generally associated with these smaller providers, who may lack consistency and quality in delivery, service and aircraft availability. Using a large or well-established charter provider usually eliminates many of those issues.

The private aviation industry has grown rapidly during the last few years, spawning the emergence of a significant number of charter brokers – basically sales people who have access to multiple charter operators. If you choose to use a broker, choose wisely. In many cases, a broker’s profession is not aviation; it’s sales, and there have been many instances of disreputable brokers that prey on uneducated buyers. They may not know anything about the aircraft they are proffering, or the operator’s maintenance and safety record, or the training standards of the pilots.

To ensure that you are working with a trustworthy broker, confirm their aviation experience before even asking for a quotation. Qualified brokers are experienced aviation professionals linked to a reliable charter operator, complete with the appropriate Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) or Federal Aviation Authorities (FAA) certifications. The more well-established operators may also be skilled brokers, as they have a network of additional aircraft available to them through partner operator networks.
 
Cost effective
I often get asked at what stage chartering a jet becomes a cost-effective solution to travel. There is never a single, correct answer to this, as it really depends on each individual’s reasons for chartering a jet in the first instance. However, from a financial perspective, companies and individuals who fly up to 200 hours per year typically find chartering makes the most financial sense. On the other hand, many flyers find that chartering also makes sense for them in much higher usage or as a supplement to other forms of flying.

For whatever reason you decide to charter a private jet, there’s no doubt about the benefits it brings in the form of efficiency, convenience and security. It enables business to keep up with the increasingly global nature of the marketplace, and it allows individuals to travel in a safer, more secure, time-optimised fashion. However, as with any other form of investment, it is worth ensuring that you do it right and, while it is true that compromise is part of life, it shouldn’t be a part of private air travel.

Greg Thomas joined PrivatAir in 1994 as General Counsel and as Secretary of the Board of Directors. In 1998 he became a Member of the executive committee of the board, and was appointed COO in December 2000 and CEO in February 2003. Thomas is also one of the board directors of Geneva Airport and a member of the EBAA board of governors.