Plane Conversations

Recently I was having a conversation with a Charter Operator’s team about possible ways to increase their visibility and market share.  I mentioned the use of customer testimonials as part of their advertising.  They responded, “But our customers won’t do it.  They feel like people will judge them negatively because they used a private charter.”

I haven’t been able to get that thought out of my head.

There is a stigma about general aviation- that somehow these planes are the wasteful toys of the “rich”.  To admit to flying one or utilizing one for business seems to be tantamount to admitting you have stock in Exxon, own a Hummer, or that you were involved in clear cutting a rainforest.  There’s a stigma.  And ironically it doesn’t matter if you’re flying a Cessna 172, a Cirrus, Baron, or a Phenom.  People will look sort of sideways at you and wonder if somehow you’re the clandestine “millionaire next door”

There are several things that we need to understand about “Plane Guilt” if we hope to overcome it:

The relative nature of the argument. When someone uses what is perceived as “rich toys” either for pleasure or as a part of their business, there is a judgment that happens in many people’s mind.   “Mr. Jones is so extravagant and wasteful to be using that business plane. ” And many clients/owners/operators are very aware of this stigma. The argument that aviation is simply an extravagant and wasteful tool for the wealthy is completely relative.  It’s relative based on one’s perception of affluence and wealth.  What is extravagant to one may not be to another.  In many ways Americans have blinders on and miss the fact we are, in general, an affluent people.  Consider the fact that Americans and Europeans  spend enough on ice cream and pet foods to provide  water, health, nutrition, and education for the entire planet.  Also, consider that 80% of the people on the planet live on less than $10 a day.1  Of course Americans are a generous people too.  Even in the economic hard times we are facing at home, over $200 million was raised in short order for the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. 2   But realize that this relief was only possible because we, as a people, are successful.  And never mind the crucial role, dare we mention it, that private aviation continues to play in that recovery effort.  Nonetheless, we need to understand the argument that somehow Aviation is more wasteful than something else is really to give in to a selective form of logic that ignores the larger picture.

In fact, most of the pilots I know are far from wealthy (including yours truly).   Most would fall into the middle-class.  They work hard, have families, and developed their flying hobby. Even professional pilots aren’t soaking up the dollars.  The  average salary for a new corporate pilot is $32,500.   Flight Instructors average about $25 per hour before taxes (at 30%).3  Of course these can increase with seniority, but very few are making anywhere near the six-figure income many people wrongly assume. Somehow people have gotten it into their heads that pilots and those involved in GA are wealthy (which equals ‘suspect’).   Those who work in the industry know better.  Flying has a wonderful cross-section of people.  Yes, there are celebrities and wealthy people, but by far most GA patrons and operators are not.

There are plenty of other expensive hobbies that consume thousands of dollars in discretionary income each year.  Is golf looked on with equal disdain?  What about bass-boat owners?  Or Harley-Davidson riders?  There was a time when it was a bit pretentious to have a cell phone (remember when they came in those gigantic brief-case-sized bags?)  Not that long ago to have more than one car or a flat-screen television was a sign of excess.  But times, and stigmas can change.

The Expense of Charter? Charter flying can be expensive.  But it can also be surprisingly affordable.  As I was working on this article I looked at what the cost difference was between airline and charter flights for a trip from Evansville, Indiana to Atlanta.  The average price for the airline ticket was $800.  The charter price was around $780 in a modest Cessna 310.  For a bit more speed, a King Air was $944.  Jet service in a  BeechJet was $1300.  This illustrates the idea that charter can be had for less than most people realize.  Perhaps that would be worth the cost to avoid the hassle and extra fees of today’s airline travel.

But it’s the perception, right?

Overcoming the Stigma by Stories How can we overcome the stigma of Charter/Corporate flying?  We tend to argue from the statistical side, particularly the cost and relative affordability of flying.  But there’s one critical feature missing: emotion.  People often pay for a good or service because of emotion and perceived value.  One of the most effective means of doing this is through the use of stories.

Aviation needs a Jared.

When Jared Fogle was a junior in college he weighed a whopping 425 pounds.  His father, a doctor, warned him of his weight and the dangers it posed to his health.  After his roommate noticed signs of edema (fluid retention that can lead to diabetes) Jared decided to get serious about losing weight.  He discovered Subway’s new line of low-fat sandwiches and developed his own diet based on eating one veggie sub for lunch and a turkey sub for dinner.  The rest is history and marketing genius by storytelling.  Most of us have seen Jared’s commercials and know that dropped to 180lbs.  The story caught on, despite the initial resistance of Subway’s marketing firm.

In their book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath make the point that this serendipitous campaign contains all the things necessary to be successful and “sticky”.  It is simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and given by a story.  They note, “Inspiration drives action, as does stimulation.” Later they note the surprise in the story, “[Jared's story] violates our schema of fast food…the guy who wore 60-inch pants is giving us diet advice!” (Heath and Heath, p222)

Can we find a story like Jared’s?  We need a story that violates the schema, the stigma, currently popular about flying.  Aviation has tended to depend on celebrities to make its case.  That has its advantages.  But perhaps a far more effective and change-inducing idea is to find the “ordinary person” who is utilizing and benefiting from charter aviation and has the courage to tell their story.

Because, we have a story worth telling.  Can we find our Jared?

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When we started our flight school, Wings of Eagles, ten years ago, we were looking for a new trainer that would be efficient, safe and fun to fly. We wanted to do something different and reach a different market of people interested in learning to fly by offering new aircraft with the latest technology.

At that time, most flight schools were using 20-year-old Cessna 152s and 172s as their primary trainers. I learned to fly in those aircraft and there’s nothing wrong with learning to fly in a 20 year old trainer; but, it is not the most inspiring sight.  When you are thinking about learning to fly, you’re not looking for an aircraft that has a worn down paint job, a ratty interior, and radios from a different era of electronics.  You’re looking for an aircraft that looks like the future, which is why we chose the Da-20 Katana because it represented just that – the future. When the Da-40 Diamond Star came out we were in line and bought one of the first ones made – serial number 42.

Through the last ten years, these aircraft have proven to be great trainers: so, we have kept Diamond Da-20s and Da-40s in the mix, even  as we have upgraded the fleet.

Like all general aviation aircraft manufacturers, Diamond has had a rough ride in the past two years, but they have hung in there, and now it looks like they are on the verge of some new, innovative aircraft that will keep them in the future game of private and general aviation. 

A post on Flight Global this past week written by Flight International’s Kate Sarsfield of Flight International says that Diamond Aircraft has secured an investor to help them complete the certification of the D-jet.

This is great news for the industry. There is room between the high performance piston aircraft (Cirrus) and the new light jets (Embraer Phenom and Cessna Mustang) for a single engine jet primarily focused at the market of owner-flown aircraft buyers.  

At a price of 1.9 million, which is roughly half of the Phenom 100, and nearly 1 million less than the TBM850, this aircraft would be positioned well in the market to sell.

Kate Sarsfield also mentions other innovations and product offerings that Diamond is working on:

Dries (CEO of Diamond) admitted at the show that Diamond has been forced to diversify its product line and widen its target market to “survive the economic downturn.” A number of projects are in the works, including: 

• Designing wing spar boxes for the Russian MC-21 airliner, which is set for service entry in 2017.
• Building a Mercedes-based V-6 turbo diesel engine for the DA50 DiamondStar piston single
• Designing and building a “future small aircraft” powered by twin turbo diesels. The six-seat variant will have twin 270hp (200kW) engines, while the eight-seat model will have two 400hp engines. Both aircraft will have fly-by-wire controls, an automatic landing system for use in case of pilot incapacitation and be available in pressurised and unpressurised versions.

• Developing two new V-8 turbo diesels – one with 350hp and the other with 550hp.
• Developing a light aircraft driven by a hybrid combination of a 55hp Wankel rotary engine and a 40-50kW electrical motor. Dries said an aircraft will make its debut at next year’s show.

Meanwhile, Diamond has European approval for its 170hp AE300 Austro engine powered DA40 piston single – now called the DA40NG.

Much of what is mentioned has to do with diesel engine technology for aviation. The diesel technology will eventually catch on in a big way for two reasons:

1. The supply of aviation gasoline is limited in most parts of the world and will probably not get better, but here is always an available supply of jet fuel and eventually a bio jet fuel will be on the market.
2. The diesel engine is more economical and eventually will be more reliable.

 So, hats off to Diamond for being forward-thinking and innovative.

 I look forward to seeing the D-jet and diesel variants of the Da-40 and Da-42 Twin star flying here in the US.

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I read this article in the Chicago Tribune, Another East Coast storm grounds planes, although cancellations likely fewer than prior storm, and it made me glad that I’m not working at the ticket counter anymore. 

It was 14 March 1993 and I was working in Lexington, KY.  I remember the date because our flights were all full or oversold due to the sold out SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament, held that year at Rupp Arena downtown.  We all anticipated a challenging Sunday with lots of passengers and bags.  What we did not anticipate was the Storm of the Century.  Because of the treacherous roads, most of our agents couldn’t even get to work that day; so, if I remember correctly, about seven of us worked from 5:30 in the morning until about 11 PM, working flight after flight with the occasional snowball fight in between. Because of conditions at the hubs, most other airlines were grounded. Nashville was operational; so, we loaded up our little Jetstreams and off they went, mostly on time. 

On another day, tornadoes were in the area.  The passengers were already on the aircraft when a tornado was actually spotted.  Everyone deplaned and went to secure areas inside.  One passenger complained the whole way in about missing her connection.  In the list of our priorities, keeping her from harm came before making her connection.

One afternoon, we were about three minutes late pushing off the gate.  The aircraft went out to the taxiway, then came right back to the gate.  It seemed that a small aircraft was on final approach and was unable to extend their landing gear.  They were coming in gear up, which meant that, at best, they’d slide along the runway, closing it for a period of time.  That is what actually happened.  The aircraft was severely damaged, but no one was hurt.  The runway was closed for two or three hours.  One passenger complained loudly that if we had left on-time, they would not have been help up be this delay.  The truth of the matter is, that three minutes made no difference.  The airport was already preparing for this emergency arrival. 

I often talk about how much less stressful and efficient travel is on a private aircraft as opposed to an airliner, and, in  most cases, that holds true.  However, snow and ice hold the same problems for a Gulfstream wing that they hold for an Airbus wing.  Runway closures park Cirrus SR-22s as surely as it does Boeing 747s.

Delays and cancellations because of field conditions or weather are almost as much a pain for airline employees as they are for stranded passengers.  There is absolutely no way the agents can fix the situations, either.  From behind the counter, we always understood the frustration of the passengers who had somewhere they needed to be.  They often saw the gate or ticket agent as the impediment between them and their final destination.  The natural reaction in a situation like that is to try to remove the impediment.  However, verbally attacking or insulting the agent doesn’t work.  In fact, it is likely to completely shut down an agent who might otherwise have helped you.

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In 2001, Atlantic Monthly national correspondent and best selling author James Fallows wrote a book called “Free Flight: From Airline Hell to a New Age of Travel”. I got a copy as a gift from a friend and, as an aviation insider, read it with great interest. Plus, I love the title which, after nine years, is still relevant.

When he wrote the book, he focused on three innovations that he predicted would revolutionize air travel by providing private air transportation to the frustrated airline traveler at rates more people could afford. Pulling the book out of my cabinet at the office and knocking the dust off, I revisited what James Fallows had to say then and compare it to where we are today.

What were the three innovations?:

1. Cirrus and the Klapmeier brothers who dreamed up the idea of a single engine aircraft with a parachute system for that extra measure of safety.
2. Eclipse Jet and Vern Rayburn who brought the term Very Light Jet into the conversation of business aviation.
3. NASA who encouraged innovation in aircraft design and the development of free flight which allows aircraft to go directly from Point A to Point B saving time, fuel and traffic congestion of highly traveled airways.  This was under the NASA’s Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) program. The idea was to make personal flying closer to the automobile experience – safer and easier to be within reach of more travelers allowing people to bypass the air mass-transit system in favor of going from small airport to small airport.

In the last nine years, how did James Fallows’ case studies fare?

To date, Cirrus has manufactured and sold more than 5000 aircraft and has been the number one, best selling aircraft in the past decade – not bad for a start-up company with a non-conventional design. Like other aviation companies, Cirrus has been severely impacted by the economy but will survive in some form. The aircraft has been too successful and the market will continue to demand new models with improved technology.

Eclipse ran the long race to certification and actually made a few Eclipse jets before passing out at the finish line. Eclipse didn’t make it; but, urged on by the innovation, Cessna and Embraer were able to come out with the Cessna Mustang and the Phenom 100, which are here to stay.

Cirrus proved the SATS concept by bringing a whole new user of private aviation into the fold and, today, more people are flying small aircraft. No one knows the exact number, but many Cirrus buyers were first-time aviators who were convinced that they could learn to fly and safely pilot the Cirrus aircraft wherever they needed to go for business or pleasure. Flying is still not as simple as driving, but, every year it gets easier and safer due to the technology of the modern cockpit. One day it may be the George Jetson story!

Somewhere in the story was the hope that airline delays and traffic congestion problems could be solved by technology. Today, the talk is of Next Generation Air Traffic Control Technology (NexGen) which would help; but, the problem of “ Airline Hell” has still not been solved. If anything, it has only gotten “hotter” (worse). Today, nine years later, there is more frustration than ever before with the airline system. The solutions are out there but have yet to be implemented. In 2001 Web2.0, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn had not been dreamed into existence. So, is the solution an aviation solution or does it come from technology?

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VIP is an acronym used often to describe Very Important People or those that, for some reason or another, are more important than other people. It is most associated with music stars, sports stars and the rich. But, let’s face, it: We all want the VIP treatment. It makes us feel special or important. And feeling very important? Well, that’s really cool.

 More than VIPs, I like the idea of MIPs. Most Important People. Who are the MIPs in our lives? Family first, best friends, and coworkers who are also friends.  We like spending time with our MIPs. When we are away from our them, we can hardly wait to get back to them.

 So for all of you Road Warriors, you business travelers I see in airports all the time with wearied expressions on your faces and Smart Phones in your hands, what is it worth to you to get more time with your MIPs?

With all the negative things that have been said and written about riding around in business jets (could be a propeller aircraft, as well)  – about the costs and luxury, the one thing the critics always fail to mention is the time private jet travel saves. Time - that finite resource we all possess and want to maximize.

 With travel by business aircraft you get security, privacy and, most importantly, you get time. Time not wasted in an airline terminal can be spent with your MIPs.

 So, like a lot of things we spend money on, methods of travel have different values to different people. If you don’t travel and like to stay home then a private jet doesn’t bring much value.  You are less likely to understand why anyone would spend that much money using that mode of transportation. But if you have been financially successful, you do travel and the your market values you highly, then you are more likely to understand the value proposition.

 As I have said in other posts, the way our industry will continue to grow is to find ways to bring the costs down so that more people can take advantage of the value proposition that we can provide.

For all of you road warriors out there riding on the airlines every week, going to sell your product, meeting your vendors any doing everything else you must do to grow your businesses, you deserve to get more time back – just like Oprah or any other VIP does.  To get that time back, you don’t have to ride around in a Gulfstream jet (even though it would be nice to do so). If  time is what you are looking for, then your options are numerous. You can charter an aircraft or you can learn to fly, renting or buying a small aircraft to get around. Flying yourself compares to using air mass-transit like driving your car compares to taking the bus.  In some cases riding the bus saves time (when you are in big city traffic) but in other cases driving yourself is more efficient.  Or maybe there isn’t even a bus to ride and driving the car is the only way.  It works much the same with airplanes.  In a lot of cases, the time savings of flying yourself versus flying on air mass-transit ultimately translates to monetary savings.

On one end of our business spectrum sits the Gulfstream G550 business jet and on the other end sits the small Cessna or Cirrus propeller aircraft.  The Gulfstream that requires years of piloting experience, but the Cessna and Cirrus can be flown by anyone who takes the time and effort to learn to fly. In between are a world of options that make sense at levels where the value of your time increases.

At the end of the day, the goal is to spend more time with your MIPs; so, I say go take a look at what our industry has to offer to help you achieve this goal. If you have to travel there is no other device invented yet that can save your time like the private aircraft.

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The first aircraft to fly charter and airline service were single engine aircraft like this four-passenger, Boeing model 40A. It was a different experience for the first brave passengers to board an aircraft and head out across the country. Not too far into the development of aviation, someone figured out that two engines (or more) is better than one. Especially when engines of the day had the propensity to quit running without much notice to the pilots.

In 1984, our company had the opportunity to add a single engine aircraft to our fleet – a six-seat Piper Lance. We thought it was a good idea at the time because it would allow us to service another market – customers who did not want to pay the rates on the jet and twin turbo-prop aircraft we already offered.  It did not take us too long to figure out that the single engine aircraft being manufactured at that time worked poorly for passenger charter. Why? Because they were limited to operating only in daytime and in good weather conditions (Visual Flight Rules-VFR). Difficulties arose when a customer would schedule a trip two weeks beforehand.  On the day of the trip, if the weather was bad, we could not fly it in the single engine aircraft; so, we had to either cancel the trip or we had to put the customer in a larger aircraft. Cancelling the trip made customers unhappy.  Upgrading customers to a larger and more weather capable aircraft for the same price resulted in losses for us. Neither solution was workable; so, we ended our single engine charter experiment and made the decision to get out of that charter market and to only operate aircraft with two engines.

Fast forward 25 years and what has changed?

In the late 1990s, Cirrus Design in Duluth, Minnesota, came out with an innovative, new, four-seat, single engine aircraft called the Cirrus SR-20, followed quickly by the more powerful and capable Cirrus Sr-22.  What really made this aircraft unique from other single engine aircraft was an on-board parachute system. In the event of engine failure or for any other serious emergency and in the absence of  decent place to land the aircraft without engine power, the pilot of the Cirrus can pull an overhead handle, deploying a parachute that is attached to the airframe. At that point the aircraft becomes a passenger of the parachute system, floating to the ground and touching down at a speed which allows the pilot and passengers walk away safely. Time and trial have proven that the system works.  Cirrus continued to innovate with the best of new generation avionics for the pilot, redundant power supplies to the cockpit,  and anti-icing systems for the wing, stabilizers and propeller that were previously only available on jet aircraft.  All of this capability eventually resulted in the FAA changing its rules about single engine charter aircraft.  Instead of being restricted to VFR conditions, single engine charter aircraft could now fly in instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions while performing commercial charter flights.

So, after years of nothing happening in the single engine charter business, we are finally seeing its emergence into the market. At first, I was skeptical that the flying public would charter single engine aircraft, but the market has proven me wrong.

SATS Air, the single engine air taxi company, failed this past year but not because of the aircraft. Other small charter companies around the country are proving every day that small aircraft charter works as a business model and that it is safe. At our airport in the Middle Tennessee market, Harmony Air is off to a good start with the Cirrus SR-22 as its primary aircraft.  Another similar success story is Fleet Aviation, located in White Plains, New York. 

The business models of these companies differ from large aircraft charter operations. In addition to offering air charter services in the Cirrus aircraft, they also offer flight training through affiliated companies. I am sure they can tell you many stories where the charter customer enjoyed their experience so much that they decided to learn to fly and ended up buying or renting an aircraft to fly themselves.

In our industry, that is the ultimate success story. We grow and prosper when we take the  business traveler who is looking for a better solution and convert them to a charter customer.  Maybe we teach them to fly or maybe we don’t, but, either way, we turn them into an avid user of private aircraft. People discover the efficiency and enjoyment of traveling in small aircraft and many of them never go back to the airlines.

Thanks to the small aircraft charter companies and flight training facilities in this country for bringing in a whole new group of customers to our industry. General Aviation cannot prosper as an industry without these companies!

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Over the past 18 months we have witnessed the failures of several attempts to innovate private aircraft travel through the business model of “Air Taxi”. The Air Taxi is as simple in concept as the name implies. Someone needs to go somewhere so they take a taxi. Stand out on the street, hail the cab and get moving. Simple.  The aviation concept is (was) go to the nearest airport (air taxi stand), hail an aircraft and get moving. Again, simple.

Most notable of the Air Taxi start-ups was Florida-based Dayjet, using the Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet as its launch aircraft. Not only did the Air Taxi company fail but the aircraft manufacturer (Eclipse Jet) also failed. Recently SATSAIR, the South Carolina-based Cirrus air taxi operator covering the southeastern United States, fell victim to the hard economy and ceased operations. Others have tried to get off the ground and either never got to the stage of actually flying, or had to modify their business plans early on to more resemble the traditional air charter companies like ours. The aircraft manufacturers have seen widespread fleet cancellations over the past twelve months as the financial markets have withdrawn their willingness to finance aircraft.  Maybe those cancellations saved investors from losing a lot of money with future startups of air taxis.   

So what happened?

I am not sure if anyone has the total answer. Was the Dayjet operation the right idea but wrong aircraft? Or would the business have worked even with the right aircraft?

I believe the idea for an Air Taxi in its raw form is fantastic. Taking the idea and developing it into a working business that can execute and make a profit is another thing.

Too many startups focus on the marketing side and don’t understand the absolute necessity for operational execution at the highest level of efficiency. Even if the operational side is executed flawlessly you still need passengers to show up in sufficient numbers at the right time, place and price to make it work. Where are those passengers and why wouldn’t they show up?

Could the problem be that, so far, the business models put out there have been a sort of “field of dreams” model? “Build it and they (the flying public) will come?”

What if the market had assembled itself to create the demand and then come to the air taxi businesses and said, “here we are and this is what we want!” Impossible you say? Maybe so, but maybe not. The technology is out there to allow “The Market” to communicate among itself and create its own “Request For Proposal” of sorts, and then go to the supplier (the charter or air taxi operator) and solicit  pricing proposals (air cab fares) for specific routes that make sense, and thus evolve naturally over time.

Who says the Air Taxi concept has to be proved in a big scale way? Didn’t some of the greatest technology companies of our time start small in the garage or home office?  What about  building the air taxi concept one route at a time?

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Just like your automobile, aircraft require maintenance to keep them airworthy. Airworthy is an easy aviation term to understand. For once, our industry came up with a term that adequately says what it means! 

Unlike your automobile, aircraft have mandated inspections that are designed by the manufacturer and required by the governing authorities (in our country that would be the Federal Aviation Administration).  I can ignore the oil change due light in my car and keep driving.  I may pay the consequences down the road but no one else really cares.  I may find myself stuck on the roadside and spend more money in the end if I don’t do the preventative maintenance now.

When it comes to aircraft, whether they are large commercial airliners or the smallest private aircraft, the FAA requires those of us who own and operate these aircraft to do the required maintenance.  It makes good sense considering you don’t pull over to the side of the road when your aircraft breaks down.

Without getting into all the technical jargon about aircraft maintenance, there are basically two types of maintenance  inspections you have to do on an aircraft.

The first type is required based on utilization.  In our cars, we change the oil every 5000 miles.  When it comes to maintaining aircraft we perform certain maintenance tasks based on the number of flight hours since these flying machines don’t count the miles.  Time intervals of maintenance vary on different aircraft and even vary for different tasks on the same aircraft, but the essential theory is that utilization causes certain parts of the aircraft to wear.  The stresses of flight create wear on the engines and airframe; so, the purpose of these inspections is to change out components and fluids that deteriorate with use, i.e. oil.  Just as importantly, though, we are looking for signs of wear that would indicate a need for preventative maintenance.  Highly skilled and trained maintenance technicians know what to look for and can detect problems before they become bigger problems.  Put simply, the objective is to fix it before it breaks.

The other type of maintenance inspection is based on calendar time.  An airliner may fly 10 hours per day 365 days per year (3650 hours of annual use).  A small private aircraft may fly only 100  hours in that same year; however, each of these aircraft have aged one year chronologically. A ten- year-old Boeing 737 may have accumulated 36,000 hours of flight time while the 10 year old single engine Cirrus Design personal aircraft may have accumulated 1000 hours.  Each aircraft is the same chronological age; but, they have lived vastly different lives.  Aircraft need to be looked at on a calendar basis for components that deteriorate because of age.  Using the car analogy, think about what happens to a car with age. Under the hood the belts and hoses start to crack from age and tires, even though they may not have been used much, will deteriorate.  The same thing is true for the flying machine.

Like the utilization inspection, the calendar  inspection’s purpose is two-fold - to fix what is broken and to detect and repair problems before they really become a safety issue.

Having worked with some really great maintenance technicians, I can tell you that I rest easy at night knowing that these dedicated, smart, trained and highly-skilled people keep our aircraft safe.  This system of maintenance for aviation continues to advance in skill level, cumulative knowledge, training, and technology to make these flying machines safer each year.  If automobiles were maintained like aircraft, they would never wear out.

The next time you get into an aircraft to go flying, know that the machine is constantly cared for by dedicated professionals that put their name on the line every day when they sign off those inspections.

Safe Flying!

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It Was Such a Great Idea! What Happened?

SATSair

Of all the startups of air taxi / charter companies from the past few years, I would have given SATS Air the best chance to succeed.  Being in the FBO (private aviation terminal)  business at two airports, I have seen their aircraft come in on numerous occasions.  I met a couple of their pilots in the lobby of our operation who were very professional and customer service oriented.  They had a great idea.  They had the support of Cirrus with new aircraft  in a market niche that no one else was filling.

Quoting the article in Flightglobal.com, “Arguably the most successful single-engine aircraft air taxi company in the US, SATSair had in the past five years built a fleet of 26 Cirrus SR22 aircraft that accumulated 60,000 flight hours and 13 million revenue seat miles.” That is impressive for a single engine air taxi company.

George Larson’s article in Aviation Week quotes SATS Air President and CEO Stephan Hanvey ”We know our business model works,” Hanvey insisted.   George Larson goes on to say in his article: Although he declined to go into the reasons for the apparent temporary halt in the company’s “air cab” operations, he acknowledged that the decline in the U.S. national economy has undoubtedly played a role. The timing of the announcement suggested that the decision was based on an eleventh-hour development.

SATS Air paved the way for a new user of aircraft charter or air taxi service.  Their pricing and point-to-point service was competitive and efficient for travelers moving from small markets to other small and medium travel markets. They broke the barrier by proving that travelers were willing to fly on a single engine propeller aircraft in the name of efficiency and time savings.  A few years ago when SATS Air was just getting into the market, I spoke with one of our regular charter customers who chartered our Lear 45.  He was always adamant about flying on a newer aircraft and would not charter our Lear 35 aircraft because they were “older”.  Even he told me in that conversation that he had tried SATS Air and loved the service.  He was the proof that some travelers will get on a small single engine aircraft if it is new even though he would not ride on an older Lear.  I haven’t forgotten that lesson.

So what happened?  It is too early to tell   and without access to information from an insider perspective we  may not ever know.

Having fought this economy for the last 18 months, I will not be a Sunday afternoon armchair quarterback and criticize the management of SATS Air.  Besides, as John Donne noted, what diminishes one of us, diminishes us all.

It is a tough market and everyone in our industry has taken a beating – some more than others.  It is the most challenging time I have seen in all of the 27 years I have been doing this.

What I do know about how business works in this country is that best  innovation can happen in the most challenging of times.  When pressed hard, we come up with new and better ways to do what we do.  In business and general aviation, what we provide is a time saving machine – the private aircraft.  What seems to be the limiting factor for our success is our current inability to efficiently lower costs to get the supply of private jet travel services to the market in a profitable way.  I am confident that there is a solution out there, we just have to find it.

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Industries have their own languages and the aviation industry is no exception. Like many technical industries, we have acronyms and words that don’t always make sense to someone unfamiliar with our language.  Most travelers know that ATC refers to air traffic control, but FBO, apron, and taxi are either mysterious or don’t seem to make sense.  I know this may sound simplistic for those of you in the business of aviation, but for the rest of the world out there, it might be helpful to translate our language, starting with the definition of our branch of the industry – general aviation.

General aviation is everything aviation except airlines and military aviation, thus the name general applies well.  If you haven’t thought much about what other aviation is out there, let me try to fill in the blanks as best as possible about an industry that is enormous, yet, largely invisible.

• Corporate Aviation - corporations using aircraft to fly their own people
• Private Aviation – individuals using aircraft to fly themselves (flown by owners or by professional pilots)
• Medical and Emergency Aircraft - aircraft used to transport sick or injured patients, or to transport surgical teams and/or transplant organs
• Agricultural Aviation - aircraft used to apply herbicides and pesticides supporting the massive US agricultural industry
  

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• Aircraft Charter and Air Taxi - companies using aircraft to fly others for hire – both individuals and companies
• Aircraft Manufacturers - companies manufacturing the aircraft to supply the needs for the above mentioned uses
• Support services and businesses – companies selling products to support the above mentioned uses including fuel, maintenance, and other services
• Aircraft Sales companies - companies selling aircraft to the above mentioned users domestically and internationally
• Flight training - companies training pilots for corporate or private aviation, the airlines and in some cases, the military

The US has the most developed General Aviation system in the world and is a major contributor in productivity and innovation making and keeping our country great.  General aviation manufacturing of aircraft and training are still major exports for the US at a time when other industries have already shippped jobs overseas. When politicians talk about jobs and trade deficits they should consider how General Aviation in all its forms is contributing to the US economy.  In all its forms, General Aviation accounts for 1.2 million jobs in this country – most of them highly skilled and good paying – and contributes approximately $150 billion to the US economy.

Threatened by the viability of General Aviation, the leaders of the scheduled airlines have been attacking our industry for several years with their attacks recently becoming more vicious.  The attacks mislead the politicians who make policies governing our industry and the public who benefit from our services.  For our part, we will do our best to share our industry with you, answer your questions and pique your curiosity.  More than Hollywood movie stars and Wall Street fat cats, we are your friends, your neighbors and your family.  We invite you to follow our blog, consider how our industry touches you and learn our language so that we can share meaningful Plane Conversations.

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