Plane Conversations

Corporate Shuttle: An operation where private aircraft are used to move people in a company or companies between locations on a regular basis. Much like a private airline for the company without the hassle and inefficiency of the public airline.

Several years ago our company was fortunate enough to provide corporate aircraft shuttle service for a Fortune 500 company. The contract started with a term of six months, but ran  for three years and six months. Since then we have done other corporate shuttle contracts across the United States and even in other parts of the world, but that was the operation that really taught us the economic value proposition of the corporate shuttle for a company that needs to move people on a regular basis between two locations.

Before the merger of these two large companies, each one had the majority of its United States employees based in their domestic headquarter cities. Each company had highly educated and skilled research and development personnel whose intellectual capital they wanted to retain even while they combined operations.  In other words, much of the companies’ value was in the knowledge these people had in their heads.  In spite of the fact that during many mergers the efficiency gained by the action translates into job cuts, both companies wanted to retain as much of their intellectual capital as possible.  Providing a shuttle, rather than requiring personnel to relocate was one way to accomplish this. 

Non- stop airline service did exist between the two cities, but the route, monopolized by one major airline, had a high pricing structure and a schedule that was not conducive for travelers to leave from their home city in the morning, go to the other city, put in a full day at the office and get back home on the same day. Air mass-transit rarely provides that opportunity in any combination of city pairs.  The newly combined company looked at the number of people traveling, the time spent traveling, and the number of overnights required to make the meeting schedules, and decided that something had to be done to make the travel more efficient. There were a lot of hours wasted traveling and, once salaries were entered into the equation, those wasted hours were costing the company much more than just airline tickets, hotels, cabs and meals.

The company contacted us to put together a corporate shuttle that would meet the needs of their personnel traveling between those two cities. We were able to base a ten-passenger aircraft in each of their cities.  That aircraft would depart from their respective cities early in the morning, stay in the opposite city during the day and return to its base in the afternoon. The two aircraft literally passed each other in the middle of the route going opposite directions.  We set up a reservations system, giving them their own tailor-made, private airline which did allow passengers to leave from their home city in the morning, go to the other city, put in a full day at the office and get back home on the same day and at a reasonable time.

This service became so effective both in both time and cost savings that, as I stated earlier, the six month contract went on for an additional three years. The price per passenger ended up only slightly over the airline fare offered. However, the savings in overnight costs, as well as the efficient use of employee time made the enterprise worthwhile.  No more time wasted in airport terminals or overnight hotel stays.  Employees were free to do what they were being paid to do and, with the exception of those frequent flyer mileage junkies, most of the travelers in this company loved it. How many road warriors do you know who get excited about the next airline trip?

This is a story that can be told time and again all around the world. We were not the first  ones to provide corporate shuttle service.  Midwest Airlines was actually started as one!  Many companies around the world today are still  using corporate shuttles run by their own flight departments or by private jet service providers like us to move their people efficiently and cost effectively. This doesn’t sound like the “fat cat” riding around in the big jet story to me. It sounds more like an innovative way to connect people  to people and save the most valuable asset a company has – its people’s time. Do you agree?

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