 Feature
Story
Jet Travel
Efficiency for
The Effective Business Person
By Jay Winchester
Published: June / July 2008
We all know that living in a post 9/11 world has meant
changes in many areas that were once considered routine,
where personal convenience was the main thrust. Today,
that convenience we sometimes took for granted takes a
backseat to security concerns - and rightfully so.
However, the change from one emphasis to the other
creates problems for certain types of people. Certainly,
the increased time it takes to make one’s way through
the security lines and checkpoints in order to board an
airplane is no doubt the most common scenario most of us
face. And for most of us, this time simply becomes lost
hours of our lives, and we count that cost and learn to
live with it.
Consider, however, how that
same scenario affects someone like Dave Dunkel, CEO of
KForce, a professional staffing service headquartered in
Tampa’s historic Ybor City and serving a global
clientele. For Dunkel and his company, time is money,
and those long lines at the commercial airlines equal
lost revenue, lost opportunity, loss of calendar
integrity and, sometimes, lost luggage. “The commercial
airline system is broken,” says Dunkel. “Boarding lines
and parking at airports add two hours to the front side
of a flight and an hour to the backside for collecting
luggage. You cannot depend on airline flight schedules,
which means missed connections, making you late to
client meetings and too often this also means increased
hotel costs to allow for unforeseen circumstances or
missed flights.”
Frustrated, Dunkel knew there had to be a better way. He
found it at ExecuJet, a locally owned and operated
private jet charter and management service operating at
Tampa International Airport. Working with ExecuJet’s
President, Peter “Pete” Cunzolo, Dunkel discussed and
analyzed his company’s travel needs and came to the
conclusion that purchasing a private jet was the best
solution. Soon, Dunkel and his staff found that many of
the problems and frustrations they encountered when
flying commercially dissipated into thin air, as it
were.
When asked what advantages
the company gains from flying privately as opposed to
commercially, Dunkel broke the benefits down into two
main components. “Time and convenience,” he says. “With
the private plane, my trips take half the time,
schedules run much more dependably and I am able to
prepare or debrief on the plane with other key employees
or meeting attendees. It is impossible to work on
commercial planes without other people overhearing
conversations.”
Cunzolo agrees that the quality of service and the
secure environment his jets offer clients is infinitely
preferable to CEOs and key corporate personnel in a
hurry to get to their next destination. “Arriving on
time after a refreshing, relaxing flight provides a
competitive advantage many of your competitors either
cannot afford or do not choose to use,” he says. “A
private plane also provides your team with the chance to
prepare for those meetings while en route. Factor in the
added benefit of the time you save flying privately as
opposed to commercially, and it easily allows for
flights to multiple destinations and still gets the
executives home the same day.”
Richard Nini, President and CEO of Michigan-based
Corporate Eagle, which serves clientele traveling
between Florida and Michigan, points out another key
reason why CEOs should consider switching to utilizing
jet charter services. “Our clients appreciate the
personalized touches we provide them, as well as the
time savings and the convenience of coordinated
ground-to-air-to-ground travel,” he says. “However, the
real advantage for them is that our services allow them
to think differently about how and why they travel. They
develop a more flexible mindset about what the private
plane helps them accomplish and they look for new ways
to maximize their time while in the air.” In order to
facilitate the travel requests of its current clientele
and open its doors to new clientele in the Tampa Bay
area, Corporate Eagle is building its own facility at
St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport, and hopes to have it
open for business in February, 2009.
Flight Options, LLC,
headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio and serving the bay
area out of Tampa International Airport, is another
leading firm in what has become a surprisingly
competitive niche. Its Director of Communications,
Dennis Baker, points out another concern that makes
private jet travel appealing to many executives: safety.
“We lead the industry in safety, having pioneered in
private aviation the introduction of safety reporting
programs for pilots and maintenance crews that have
since been copied around the industry. We are the only
fractional provider partnering with the FAA to develop a
Safety Management System that will be mandatory for all
carriers within the next couple of years,” he says. “We
place their needs and their safety above all other
concerns. We are committed to providing the
highest-quality private jet programs and services.”
The logistics of maintaining
personal safety are also amplified by the private jet
industry. The terminals are smaller and there are far
fewer people at those terminals. Because business
travelers tend to be repeat customers, there is a level
of familiarity between service provider and client that
is missing at the commercial airline hubs where
literally thousands of faceless travelers congregate
daily in their quest to move from one place to another.
Of course, buying a private
jet outright can be expensive, even for large companies.
Dunkel encourages companies to take a long, hard look at
the options available to them before making the leap to
ownership. “This depends on the individual circumstances
of the individual companies and executives, but I’d say
a private company that could make use of the plane for
300 or more hours a year should certainly consider
ownership,” he says. Keep in mind that the depreciation
of that aerial asset, as well as the cash flow required
for maintenance and operations, are major considerations
in any decision-making process.
Of course, the industry
recognized some time ago that two things were true about
private jets: First, not everyone who wanted one could
afford private ownership. Second, not everyone who could
afford it and would buy a plane could make effective use
of it. These two realizations drove the industry to
create a plethora of ownership and charter options for
potential clients and those who already chartered or
owned planes. Some of the more standard options include:
Private Ownership
The plane belongs to you and
your company, and you are responsible for all aspects of
ownership, from hiring pilots to buying your own fuel
and maintaining a place for the plane when it is not in
the air. While there remains a certain cachet attached
to the idea of the business owning its personal jet,
there are factors (fuel costs, logistics, FAA
regulations, insurance and liability, etc.) that make
this option less appealing than others.
Fractional Ownership
In this scheme, a company
purchases a share in an aircraft. By owning this share,
the company ensures that it has access to the plane for
a specified number of flight hours per year. The larger
your share, the more flight hours and greater access to
the aircraft accrue to your account. However, the plane
is not yours. It’s a timeshare.
Aircraft Management
This program is well suited
for companies already owning private aircraft. In
essence, the company’s plane is handed over to the
charter company to manage all aspects of the aircraft,
including maintenance. The charter company also receives
the right to charter the plane to other companies or
parties when it is not in use by its owner. In exchange
for these privileges, the owner company receives access
to the charter company’s total fleet. This provides a
more flexible flight option that can be tailored to the
specifics of a trip because more planes of different
configurations are available, rather than having to
arrange all details around the configuration of a single
plane.
Jet Charter
This is the standard plan in
which a company essentially rents the plane for a
specified timeframe and a specified travel itinerary. If
a company only requires one or two flights a year, it’s
the best and most cost effective option.
Jet Cards
A relatively new wrinkle in
jet charter circles, the Jet Card allows the company to
place a deposit against future air travel. As flights
are booked and completed, the cost of the travel is
deducted from the card account (think debit card). In
most card programs, the company holding the card is free
to leave at any time, and can in fact receive a refund
of any unused balance in the account.
One program is not
necessarily better than another, and the programs at the
different charter companies may vary from what is
described above. Ultimately, the type of ownership
program that is right for your company depends on its
particular travel needs and financial standing. Also, it
is important to keep in mind that, like many other
services, rates and terms vary from operator to
operator. Be sure to check the fine print in any
agreement before you sign on the dotted line.
Additionally, many charter companies also operate as
brokers for those looking to buy or sell aircraft. Every
company mentioned in this article can develop an
ownership or charter option that is tailor-made to meet
your company’s needs.
Still, there is something
about the notion of having a limo drop a CEO off at the
runway, where the jet sits with its motors idling and
the on-board personnel wait to meet his or her every
need. In fact, quality of service is one way in which
jet charter companies seek to differentiate themselves
from others. Corporate Eagle, for example, provides
high-touch, high-quality services to a specified number
of exclusive members. Flight Options and ExecuJet also
offer their clients many amenities, and many of these
are also highly personalized. This can run the gamut
from providing a client’s food and beverage preferences
while on board to customized cabins outfitted with every
electronic convenience.
In the end, as is true in
most entrepreneurial businesses, success comes down to
three key ingredients: knowing the customer, providing
consistent service and maintaining cost effectiveness.
Now those sound like truly
friendly skies.
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