Plane Conversations

In a previous post titled “Do Business travelers Share, Would they Share” I asked the question would business travelers share a ride on a private jet if the price was right, and it saved them time ,and they got the experience of private aviation travel. Those travelers already paying the full price of flying private aircraft may not be willing to share a flight. Price might not be the controlling factor in the decision for current users of private jet travel but what about the 550 million plus passengers who will fly on US airlines this year?

When I fly on the airlines, and end up next to another person who is traveling on business, occasionally we strike up a conversation about what we do.  When I tell people I am in the aviation business, and we fly people on private jets, the business people often tell of times they have flown on their company aircraft or a vendors aircraft, and they recount the experience and how nice it was.  Others out of curiousity want to know what it is like. Most people have an idea of how nice it would be even if they have never experienced that form of travel. Everyone guesses that it is expensive and maybe only for the CEO of the big company or the music or movie celebrities. Not one single person I have ever spoken to says they would rather not try out flying on a “small jet”.

Have you ever started planning a trip for business where there are three people in your company that need to go to see a customer and you think “how nice would it be to travel on a private jet and do this in a day”,  and then you call and get a price for a Learjet from the local charter company and it is twice (or more) what the price is on the airlines?  You only need three seats but you have to buy the whole aircraft for the day. So you give up on the idea and end up booking the airline, hotel for the overnight and the rental car to drive to your ultimate destination because the airline only gets you within 70 miles of where you want to go. Thus begins the misery of everyday business travel that millions of people go through every month.

Unfortunately our flight coordinators, who answer the calls from people wanting to charter aircraft, get that scenario all too often, and we can’t find the solution for those two or three travelers who need to go somewhere becasue the whole aircraft price is just too high. As disappointed as the potential customer is, we are equally disappointed when we lose a trip because of price. We can’t run below cost and stay in business, so we shrug it off and keep going.   

Is there a way to overcome this barrier that stops so many people from using what we know to be a great means of air travel? There are a lot of empty seats, empty flight legs and underutilized aircraft sitting so there must be a solution.

What do you think?

Click on pen to

If you walk up to the American Airlines ticket counter and ask if Mike Snicklefitz is onboard flight 37 from Walla Walla, you know what the agent will tell you?  “I’m sorry.  I’m not allowed to give out that information.”  There are several reasons why they are not allowed to share that information with anyone who isn’t in possession of a court order and one of those reasons is privacy.  It’s neither my business nor my concern when or where Mike Snicklefitz travels – unless maybe he’s my competition.  Assuming that Snicklefitz is not a danger to the public or an employee of the government (and, thus, an employee of every taxpayer on the books), I do not have a right to know his travel plans – and that’s when he’s traveling on a publicly traded airline.

Last week, a federal judge  ruled that previously blocked records for privately owned aircraft must be made public.  Corporations are no longer allowed to hide their aviation activity from anyone who cares to take a look.  An April 13 article on the Western Citizen cites alleged abuses by Kenneth Copeland, Gov. Mike Rounds, executives from bailed out companies and others as being the impetus behind this demand for aircraft use transparency.  Except in cases of government employees, I don’t really understand how the public (including me) has a right to know any of this.

As I see it, if Copeland raised money saying that he was going to use it for evangelical purposes, then he actually used it for a vacation to Fiji, that sounds like fraud and he should be held accountable.  If the governor’s trips were for personal or party purposes, that sounds like misappropriation of public funds and he should be held accountable.  However, if the bail-out companies were not given strict guidelines to accompany the funds they received, then shame on those who voted for it.

I have a teen-aged son and I don’t give him $20 without a set of accompanying instructions.  If he earns the money, then it’s his to do with as he pleases.  If it comes from me, I get to say how he spends it.  I cannot hand him the money then wait until after he’s spent it to tell him the rules; that doesn’t make any sense.

I agree that it is unconscionable for anyone who received monies from the government to use them wastefully; however, I don’t know what the trips were, the number of passengers, the hourly value of those passengers, the value of the business conducted or any other factor.  Without that information, I cannot determine any parity between the actual cost of trip using a private aircraft and what it might have cost using air mass-transit.  In either case, it might look bad; but, does it justify intrusion into every flight department in the United States?  I don’t think so.

I’m not a football coach (clearly), but even I can see that The Greatest Football Coach in the History of the Sport doesn’t want the Wannabe Coach Crowd to know where he’s going to recruit.  Super Company does not want the world to know that they are travelling to visit Ailing Company to investigate an acquisition.  Indeed, if they did make that trip and someone purchased stocks based on that travel information, is that insider trading?  Are there anti-trust issues?

A company aircraft is just as much a private vehicle as a company car.  Just because a minority of users showed poor judgment, that does not give anyone with an internet connection the right to monitor private vehicles.  In this case, the private vehicle is an aircraft; so, boil it down and what you have is a total lack of privacy when using a private vehicle.  There are privacy laws dictating the conditions under which automobile owner information may be revealed.  Aircraft owner information is available right on the FAA’s website.  Not all automobiles are equipped with GPS and they don’t have to file Drive Plans.  Aircraft often have transponders and file Flight Plans. 

So, the question in my mind is: why do basic privacy laws not apply to aircraft owners?  Simply because the vehicle is easier to track?

Click on pen to

Of the many fun reasons to pilot new Embraer Executive Jets, one of the best is St. Martin.  Located in the Lesser Antilles island chain, the French/Dutch Island of St. Martin (or St. Maarten) is a convenient stop when ferrying aircraft out of South America.  The clear, blue Caribbean Sea is the perfect backdrop for this European tropical oasis. 

Located on the more raucous, Dutch side of the island; Princess Juliana International Airport is famous for its runway which begins just a few steps from the Caribbean.   Tourists like to hold onto the airport fence when jumbo jets depart, letting go at full throttle up for a brief flight of their own backwards into the surf.  And the Dutch brew Heineken…here it is half the price of your neighborhood package store.  On the opposite, French side of the island, are restaurants and hideaways well known for French cuisine and quiet honeymoons.   But here on the Dutch side, casinos and lively night life are the norm.

After a long day including three technical stops; the ground crew of Arrindell Aviation Services, www.arrindellaviation.net  is a welcome sight.  Henke is there to meet us with a very short ride in a gleaming white van over to the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort.

At the Sonesta, we all enjoy a quick clean-up prior to falling into a chair at Cheri’s Café just across the road.  Cheri’s is “island chintzy” but is just what we’re looking for with smooth tropical drinks in a very casual island setting.  The local band preys upon the tourists who take a willing part in the evenings shenanigans.

If you are lucky enough to arrive before sunset, I recommend you watch the water, airplanes and the sunset from the Sunset Beach Bar.  Just a short walk from the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort, the Sunset Beach Bar offers just the right elixir to rub off a full day of flying.  www.sunsetbeachbar.com

Click on pen to

In our ongoing discussions about how to reduce the costs of flying private aircraft by putting together a way to share a ride I posted a blog titled “Would Business Travelers Share?”

We believe that people would be willing to share a private jet flight with others provided it left at a mutually agreed on time both coming and going.

So if you can answer the when question (when we all want to go) what about the who (who will I share a ride with) question?  

Who you would share the flight with?

Would you share a flight with your competitor? Probably not. You would not want to have your competitor in close quarters for two hours listening to your discussions about today’s meeting or presentation.

If you are on a business trip would you share the flight with a group of college kids going to spring break and ready to party?

When you ride on the airlines you don’t have much choice who you sit next to. You may get lucky enough to sit next to Kevin Smith and share his space? Or a bratty kid who keeps kicking you and you can’t kick back?

If you were sharing a ride on a private jet charter flight it would be very easy to know in advance who was sitting next to you. With all of the social media profiling surely you could just go take a look at your seat mates Facebook page or LinkedIn profile and figure out if they might be OK to share the flight with. It would seem that knowing who you are riding with could be very easy to determine and even control.  

You never know, the person you share the flight with may end up being your next friend, client, partner, collaborator…..

Click on pen to

4 in a 4 part Series:

In the previous posts in this series, we discussed the gaps in Price and Time between Private Aviation and Air Mass Transit travel.  This time we are going to look at the gap in customer experience.

It is easy to measure price in terms of actual dollars and in terms of the value of our time, which we can use as an offset of the price gap. The more difficult gap to measure is the difference in the experience of the two forms of travel. To date, I am not sure if anyone has been able to accurately quantify the difference in the traveler’s experience. The ability to measure the traveler’s experience on either a private aircraft or an airline and compare that to the alternate experience, would give us a more meaningful comparison between the two.  That comparison could then be quantified and translated into a monetary measurement, which would go towards offsetting the price gap.  I believe that offset would be a valuable tool in selling private aviation services.

Here is what we know for sure!

Those who have experienced private aviation as a form of travel often justify the high price by speaking of the better experience as opposed to traveling by air mass-transit.  Call it the Hassle Factor of the airlines: the anti-social behavior of the passengers we share space with in an airliner, the rude treatment we sometimes receive, the lack of control over where we go and how we have to get there, the uncomfortable feeling of being compressed into a space that is measured in inches of seat pitch, the food served (or mostly not served) on the planes, the baggage abuse (bags don’t have feelings but I don’t like my stuff being abused) and on and on……

You get the point.

Stack that against the experience of private aviation.

Not one single person I have spoken to in 28 years of being in this business has ever said to me, “I can hardly wait to go back to traveling on the airline since I can’t afford to travel in a private aircraft anymore.” Not one. Every aircraft owner, charter customer or private pilot / aircraft owner pilot cites the better experience of flying by private aircraft as the number one reason to close the price gap. They don’t know how to quantify it but they know what they know. How good would it be for our industry to develop a tool that measures the experience, quantifies it and then translates it into dollars?

As consumers, we purchase experience with our hard earned money every single day. We pay more for an iPhone than for a Blackberry because we like the experience. We ride in a luxury car rather than in a compact car because of the experience. Both serve the same purpose since we arrive at the same time regardless of the type car, but what a different experience to ride in a nice driving, luxury car as opposed to a compact.

If we can ever measure and quantify the experience and then communicate that measurement to the market we might be able to come a long way in bridging the price gap that has prevented the many from experiencing the joy of travel by a mode that the few have become accustomed and maybe even addicted to!

Click on pen to

Part 3 in a 4 part Series

There is a huge gap between the time it takes to get from origin to destination by Private Aviation and the time it takes on the Airlines. In some cases, even a small, single-engine, propeller aircraft can get you there quicker than the airlines. In all cases, a business jet aircraft can get you there quicker and here is why:

• Your schedule:  You start by setting your own schedule when you use private aviation. If it makes sense to leave at 7am, then you leave at 7am. You set the time of departure based on when you want to arrive on the other end. Have a meeting at 10am?  Then you set your departure time to arrive in time to make your 10 am meeting. Easy enough. No traveling the night before.
• Closer airports: With over 5500 airports in this country and only 500 of them having any commercial service at all you have an additional 5000 airports to choose from when you take a trip via private aircraft; so, in all cases you can get closer to your real destination. Instead of going into the large commercial airport closest to where you want to go, most of the time there is a smaller airport that saves a lot of driving once you get there. That also works on the departure end. In larger cities there are several airports located on different sides of town, allowing you to pick the one closest to your home or office and leave from there. If you live in a small town, then you no longer have that sometimes one to two-hour drive to a big city to catch an airline flight. In our home state of Tennessee, we have more than 80 airports; so, no matter where you live in our state, you are no more than 30 minutes from a public airport. Smaller airports are less congested, giving you the added benefit of less time holding in the air or on the ground due to busy airport traffic jams.
• Direct Flights: You always go direct with private aviation; so, you waste no time going though a hub airport with one to four-hour layovers and multiple boarding processes just to get to your destination.
• No standing around: Flying in private aircraft, you can show up between five and ten minutes prior to the departure time you set, park close to the private aviation terminal and, in some cases, pull up next to the aircraft to unload bags. You are greeted by the pilots and you board immediately. You can skip the time wasted riding the shuttle to the terminal from long-term or off airport parking, queuing up for baggage checks, security screening and then waiting at the gate for 45 minutes.  There is no way you can plan on getting to the gate just five minutes before scheduled departure – the air mass-transit’s Contract of Carriage forbids it.

When you compare the two methods of air travel, the savings of time by flying private aircraft can be hours per trip and, in many cases, even days.  When we get people to their meetings and back on the same day, they tell us that the airlines would have taken two days with a limited meeting schedule or three days if they wanted a full day of meetings.

Everyone has a value on their time and it is especially important to quantify that value when you think in terms of productivity in business. Those who charge directly for their time like accountants or lawyers can easily quantify their time and compare the options to see if they can gain productivity by using a more efficient means to travel. Most travelers don’t think about it because they assume that they don’t have an option. What if we gave them a tool to measure the productivity of alternate means of travel? Could that close the gap?

What is your time worth?

Click on pen to

2 in a 4 Part Series

In this discussion, we will focus on the gap of pricing between Private Aviation and Airline Travel. Is there a way for us to partially bridge the gap? And, if so, how much do we need to bridge it to make it worth the time savings and better experience?

A round-trip airline ticket from Nashville, Tennessee, to New York City (BNA to LGA) costs between $525 (with one stop) and $1100 (non-stop).  Expedia publishes a travel time of 3:45 for the one stop and 2:00 for the non-stop, a difference of an hour and 45 minutes.

Flying the same route in an eight-passenger private jet costs approximately $10,000.  That price is the same whether you fly by yourself or if you take seven friends or business associates with you. You save at least two hours of terminal time avoiding the airline and your experience will be better.

Most of us have difficulty justifying this price since we seldom need to take seven friends or business associates with us; so, the price per person is $10,000 or maybe, at best, $2500 if there are four of us going.  That’s often still a tough sell.

As I see it, there are only two ways to bridge the gap between the two modes of travel:

• Bring the total price of the private aircraft charter down relative to the mass-transit price
• Fill the aircraft with eight travelers

The first solution can work from both sides.  The gap shrinks if either airline fares go up or air charter prices go down.  If both things happen, the gap shrinks even more.   While I don’t believe the gap will ever be totally closed, every incremental movement works to the advantage of our industry, taking into account private air travel advantages in the other two gaps – passenger experience and time savings.

Private air travel can bring the price down when fleet utilization goes up. Many of the costs of traveling by private jet are fixed; so,  you can lower the overall operating costs with higher utilization, which allows you to spread the fixed costs over a wider base AND which allows the traveler to buy at a lower price point.

Private air travel can also bring the costs down by utilizing new technology aircraft that are more fuel efficient and cost less to maintain, thereby driving down the variable operating costs to deliver the service.

These two ways of driving down costs have been used by the airlines to deliver a consistent service at lower price points. Southwest and JetBlue are the best current examples of this in the US air mass-transit system.

That leaves us with the problem of filling the seats. How do we fill enough of the seats on private charter flights to drive the costs down for each person traveling? Can we solve this problem? Would travelers migrate to a private jet flight if they could buy the seat for $1250 round trip ($10,000 divided by eight) when they could pay $1100 on the airlines?

A 10% pricing gap put into the overall matrix of price, time, and experience is a game-changer.  With that narrow of a gap, those who are used to the airline experience, but who tolerate it only because there is no real alternative, are likely to move to private aviation. Those who are already used to the price of private aviation might not sacrifice aircraft exclusivity; but, realistically, they aren’t the ones walking the bridge we just made from air mass-transit to private aviation anyway.  While some of them make take advantage of the shared aircraft, they aren’t really our target market.  We want the passengers using air-mass transit only because they have no alternative.  We want the passengers who have given up flying altogether due to the negative experience and wasted time.  We want the passengers who are in search of the better mousetrap because we believe that private aviation is it.

Click on pen to

Delta Air Lines’ recent acquisition of North Carolina-based Segrave Aviation speaks volumes about the airline’s recognition that private aviation / business aviation is a viable part of the air transportation system in the United States.

At a time when major air carriers are reducing capacity, pulling out of small markets, and scrapping to make a profit (which for the most part has not happened in a long time), Delta is doubling the size of its corporate jet charter subsidiary Delta Air Elite.

These guys are on to something.

Maybe they see the real value of a system where General Aviation plays a role that compliments the Air Mass Transit System as opposed to viewing us as the enemy?  More and more, airlines seem to be consolidating into route structures that serve the high-density traffic lanes between major US cities on domestic routes and between major US cities and major centers of commerce worldwide on international routes.

Can General Aviation serve as a feeder to the airlines much like their subsidiary and code-sharing commuter airline partners have done over the past 20 years?

General Aviation has the flexibility to move with the markets of demand much easier than the airlines do. Flights can be added at the spur of the moment as demand changes with travel seasons, or even events such as conferences and conventions where thousands of people move to a city for a three day event.

And we all know, for sure, that General Aviation delivers a much more stress free and efficient travel experience than the airlines have delivered so far.  

So maybe the mantra should be if you can’t beat them out of business, buy them?

Click on pen to

There are 77 million of them and, according to an online article on Barron’s website, Baby Boomers are being ignored by marketers.  What’s more, they are being ignored when they are the group who has driven 45% of all consumer spending for the last 60 years.  In the next few years, it is estimated that the number will grow to 52%.

So who are the marketers going after?  They favor the 18- to 49-year-olds, as they are the age group who are forming opinions, forming families, and are making major purchases like homes, cars, etc.  However, they are not the age group with their wallets out ready to spend.  Look at most advertising done today; it is aimed at the younger, hip crowd, in spite of the fact that over half of spending comes from the 45 to 63 year olds.   And this trend is expected to continue for the next 20 years, Barron’s says.

So what about the traveler?  Do we, in the aviation industry, target the Baby Boomers or Gen Xers?  Do we even know?

Travel Marketing Decisions interviewed a series of experts to gather insight into this enormous and potentially lucrative segment.  Below are some truths about Baby Boomers and the marketing implications for the travel industry.

1. Boomers consider travel a necessity, not a luxury. This is good news for the industry on two counts. First, the sheer number of boomers traveling will cause business to grow. Second, since travel is a necessity, Boomers engage in it no matter how scarce their time or money. Their travel behavior, therefore, is less dependent on life stage or the economy.

2. Boomers have traveled more than their predecessors. While their parents first visited Europe when they retired, Boomers criss-crossed the Continent as students.  They’re already seasoned travelers, and know what they like and don’t like.  They also seek out more in-depth ways of experiencing familiar places. 

3. Boomers want to have fun.  It’s not surprising that adult teenagers put a premium on having a good time. Although fun, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, Courtney Day, of a New Jersey research and marketing firm, said companionship, stimulation and the cultural/social experience make travel fun for Boomers. She added, “Part of the enjoyment of the experience is knowing it’s unique - that’s part of the rush.”

4. Boomers demand immediate gratification. Unlike their Depression-era parents, Boomers grew up in times of plenty. Easy gratification bred a desire for still more and quicker rewards. As a result, Boomers don’t wait to take the trips they want.  If they don’t have the money, they just use plastic.

5. Boomers are not passive. They want a measure of control in designing their travel experience, and, once on the road, they want to choose their activities. “If you tell them they’re going to do A, B and C, they might want to do E or F,” noted editor Malott. The challenge for travel marketers is to make it clear their product offers plenty of options.

6. Boomers think they are special. Having always been a force to be reckoned with, they are very demanding consumers.  Whether they go budget or luxury, Boomers tend to want the best.

7. Boomers like creature comforts. This fact, according to Malott, actually keeps Boomers from booking the exotic locales they profess to like. Day puts a slightly different spin on the issue. “A tent is OK,” she said, “but it better have a great view and great food. Even if you’re in the wilderness, luxury is being served a delicious meal without having to lift a finger.”

8. Boomers are time deprived. To get relief from their stressful schedules, Boomers vacation where they can do absolutely nothing but be pampered. Or they may go to the opposite extreme, choosing adventures that are physically or mentally challenging – or both.  When booking travel, Boomers also need time-saving devices.  They like 800 numbers, the Internet, videos and virtual reality because they offer convenience and interactivity.  Internet use is so common among Mature Traveler readers, editor Malott automatically lists website addresses along with phone numbers. Day pointed out that Boomers use the Internet more for information gathering than booking. “It’s human nature to want to feel connected to what you’re about to sign up for,” she said. However, she added, Boomers also like the freedom of not involving other people when they are exploring a subject. Their attitude is, “When I’ve decided, I’ll initiate the next move.”

9. Boomers will pay for luxury, expertise and convenience. ATM fees, nannies and bottled water prove Boomers are willing to pay for what they want.

Seems to me Baby Boomers are the perfect customer for the private aviation industry.  So how do we reach them?  We should concentrate on adding value to the process of buying experiences.  So…a Citation XLS or a Lear 45?

Click on pen to

When it comes to air travel today, no one enjoys it.

Is There A Better Way?

Watch the video below and give this alternative some thought the next time you think about using a commercial airline. This alternative would have enabled me to go to New York City and back within the same day.  Total travel time would have been roughly five hours instead of 18.  And it would have cost me less!

Click on pen to