What if your vacation started at the airport?
It’s almost absurd to think that is a possibility these days. Just think about it…. you’ve been longing for your annual vacation which you’ve planned with your partner, friends or family for a long time. You’ve spent hours researching the most desirable location, you’ve packed your best vacation clothes, you’ve booked a wonderful hotel on Expedia, you’ve planned your activities, you’ve practiced your golf swing, and you’re thinking about your first margarita. Now you just have to get there.
But you know your vacation isn’t going to start until you actually arrive at your destination. You know you have to go through the battle of travelling on the airlines with the road warrior, the mother and wriggly child, or the stranger who saw your socks when you removed your shoes at the longer-than-long secuity line. You know that you won’t truly be able to relax and be in vacation-mode until you actually step out of the bustling airport. But is there an alternative?
I can tell you that there is. Before I started working in general aviation, I never even thought it a possibility that I could fly on a private jet or turbo-prop airplane. It seemed way beyond my reach…they’re just for rockstars flying to resorts right? Wrong. CFM has just started operating a 30 seat Jestream 41 which would be perfect for a group of people to get together and fly to a beach destination like Destin for the weekend, maybe hunting in Arkansas, or shopping in New York? These airplanes are economical, time saving, comfortable and you get to skip the big airline terminal experience entirely.
So how does your vacation start at the airport? This is how, and I know because I’ve done it:
You arrive at the airport 15 minutes before your wheels up departure time.
You grab yourself a coffee and hand your luggage to the crew (you can see your bags being handled and put gently onto the airplane).
You step out onto the ramp and take your seat in a comfortable aircraft with smiling crew and passengers who are as excited as you are to be heading to their destination. After all, the passengers are your friends or family.
You land at your destination and walk through a lovely lobby of an FBO to your waiting transportation, and head on to your resort to enjoy your one vacation a year!
So, now you just have to find some friends to travel with right? How many friends do you have on facebook? And how many friends do your friends have?
6 Responses
to “What if your vacation started at the airport?”
3 Trackback(s)
- May 29, 2010: Chris Findley
- May 29, 2010: Airplane News
- May 30, 2010: Allen Howell
This is a great angle to pursue. Many people believe that airline travel is what it is and there is no alternative, and no way to do something better. But the business world is full of people who began to see that an alternative could be found and something new could be imagined. The airlines, with the rare exception, have forgotten their roots. They have forgotten how travel with them used to be an adventure and, dare we say it, a pleasure. There was something grand about the experience of flying in its early days even if by our standards today things were a bit crude. Cuing off the railroad, the airlines sought to cater to their customers and truly serve them (This is an idea I’m working on for an article) So I think there is a market, an opportunity to re-frame and re-create what air travel can be. I believe people would be very responsive to the idea that their vacation begins at the local airport on a charter flight. As it is now we normally assume our vacation is starting only after we have run the gauntlet and bin spit out the other end of the airline system.
Did I just say “bin” instead of “been”?…. Yeah, I should have paid attention to the red line under that word.
A nice blog Rachel and I’m still admiring your push towards shared private jets. This is a great concept both for the travellers and those in the private aviation industry. At Jet Booking Direct we have been offering private jet syndicate flights for some time and have a number of registered users. Whether the groups are friends or strangers heading to the same destination it makes a lot of sense and can on a full aircraft compete with commercial airline prices.
Let’s continue to push for more shared flights and we can reward leisure travellers with the VIP service that currently only business travellers and the very wealthy enjoy.