As you mentioned, the shuttle may consist of up to 10 employees (usually NOT executives). When you factor the cost of the shuttle over the number of people using it, the “airline” advantage starts to disappear pretty quickly. Factor in the time savings not dealing with driving to the airline hub, security and the inevitable flight delays that pop up, then having a corporate shuttle program make good business AND economic sense. When I was flying corporate a few years back, we often flew a “shuttle” type of operation from OH to VA and back. It was almost impossible for the company to conduct effective business without the airplane since the plant was located several hours from any major airport. I can only imagine the amount of time (and money) we saved.

I believe that the only thing holding back companies from having corporate shuttles is the “image” issue of having a “corporate aircraft”, but a good manager or CEO who is well informed can easily counter this perceception.