Options To Consider For Private Jet Travel

When you are looking at the options available to satisfy your private jet travel needs, you may receive recommendations about the many options of private jet travel available by someone that has never personally examined your travel requirements. This is a frequent occurrence in the aviation industry, since there are numerous sales people that try to oversimplify what is actually a far more complicated question - "Which private jet travel option is really best in my situation?"

Trying to answer this question with as little confusion as possible has resulted in the creation of a guideline that actually works for only a few men and women in specific circumstances. In fact, there are so few individuals whose needs are satisfied with this formula that it has become a myth.

The particular rule states one must choose between jet cards, aircraft charter, fractional or whole aircraft ownership based on a simple formula of hours flown per year. The general guideline goes something like the following:

1. If you fly privately less than 25 hours each year, you need to charter.

2. When you fly privately between 25 to 50 hours per year, you need to purchase a jet card or block charter.

3. In the event you fly privately between 50 and 200 hours per year, it is best to use fractional (want to guess which promoters invented this rule of thumb?)

4. If you fly privately in excess of 200 hours each year you should buy your own aircraft.

The actual issue with this basic formula is that it does not take into consideration your own special needs and assumes that your desires are the exact same as everyone else's. To make a fully informed final decision, you'll need to consider many more variables than just the amount of hours flown per year. For example, if your company has a requirement for 20 hours of flight time per year, but the flights all begin in different cities, your requirements will conflict with the recommendation to use charter if your local charter operator does not have any aircraft based in these cities.

If you fly 100 hours each year, but most of the trips come from one airport or region and come back inside a day or two, once more this recommendation won't make the very best fit for you, since a fractional share or jet card will be too expensive since their model is dependent on higher, "one-way" pricing. Of course there are quite a few other considerations also, such as the convenience factor, tax benefits, availability, and so forth that cannot possibly be considered within the confines of a one-size-fits-all guideline.

When approached for guidance in choosing the best private travel option for a client, I initially establish the client's needs. How often does the client fly? Are most flights one way or round trip? Do all flights begin and end at the same location? Will the client ever have need for multiple aircraft at the exact same time, maybe flying several teams in different parts of the country to various places at the same time? What is the client's tax situation as it relates to depreciation of the asset if a share or entire aircraft were purchased?

Are there passive income issues? What's the client's most important concern when it comes to traveling? Does the client prefer to have a relationship with the flight crew or keep them at arm's length? After that, a full mission analysis is conducted, that consists of a financial review of the various choices available. On rare occasion the guideline will match up with my recommendation, but most of the time the guideline leads an individual to much more expensive options than needed.

Don't be misled by the myth that your needs can be met with a guideline. Using a thorough, in-depth analysis of your travel needs, a consultant can structure one or a number of private jet travel options in combination to create a solution that truly meets your requirements.

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